MedTech Sustainability by Design

A lot of MedTech companies treat CAPA as a compliance exercise. They open a record, close a record, and survive the audit. Georg Digel has spent his career watching what happens when that's the only goal… and it's not pretty. Georg is the Founder and Owner of Elevate CAPA. He has spent years helping MedTech companies build CAPA systems that actually work: ones that identify real problems, trace them to their root cause, and prevent them from coming back. Here's what we get into: Why CAPA is o...

Bastien Manuel recognized that sustainability was inevitable for most medical plastic manufacturers. At elmplastic, he proactively established his business with that future in mind. He's Commercial Director at elm-plastic GmbH, a Germany-based, family-owned converter of plastic and manufacturer of pharmaceutical plastic devices. In 2025, they launched what they believe is the only commercially available bio-based plastic oral dosing device on the market: a sustainable pharmaceutical pip...

This episode is brought to you by FKuR Kunststoff GmbH, a leading producer and distributor of bio-based and compostable plastics. "Recycling is just an extension of linearity." Patrick Zimmermann posts the same sentence on LinkedIn, and it always gets a reaction: He's the Managing Director at FKuR Kunststoff GmbH, a company that's been working with bio-based and compostable plastics for decades. So when he says recycling doesn't close the loop, he's not being cynical. He's being precise...

If you want to make your medical devices more sustainable, let's talk: https://calendly.com/lucas-pianegonda-gradical/discovery-call-gradical What if you could cut the time it takes to develop a medical device in half? In this episode, I sit down with Prof. Dr. Christian Johner, founder of the Johner Institute and one of Europe's most recognized experts in medical device, regulatory affairs and software. He has spent decades helping manufacturers navigate complex regulatory hurdles, and recen...

This episode is sponsored by Sterilis Solutions: https://sterilissolutions.com "How much is medical waste actually costing us?" is one of the questions hospitals are finally asking out loud. The problem is, most facilities don't realize they're dealing with a 10-20% annual cost increase—plus safety risks and sustainability pressure that isn't going away. In this episode, I speak with Andy Marshall, CEO of Sterilis Solutions, about how onsite sterilization changes the equation for hospitals, w...

Chemical recycling is often presented as a silver bullet. But is it actually viable for medical-grade plastics? In this episode, I speak with Reinier Grimbergen, CTO of Blue Circle Olefins, about what chemical recycling really is, how it differs from mechanical recycling, and where it actually makes sense for MedTech. This conversation is technical, practical, and grounded in industrial reality. We talk about pyrolysis vs gasification, energy trade-offs, feedstock constraints, economics, and ...

If you are building or scaling a medical device, sterilization problems will catch up with you. Usually later in the process than you want. In this episode, I speak with Manuel Grandy, Consultant and Managing Partner at SteriComp GmbH, about what sterilization actually means in practice and why so many teams underestimate it until regulators start asking uncomfortable questions. We talk about ETO gas, gamma radiation, and why there is no universally “correct” sterilization method. The right c...

Many organizations rely on LCAs (Life Cycle Assessments) to guide sustainability decisions, but the method is only as reliable as the data and assumptions used to build it. In this episode, Thomas Kägi, Member of the Board at Carbotech AG, explains how to structure an LCA so that the results reflect real environmental impact and not just guesses or incomplete boundaries. Thomas describes how the functional unit sets the entire frame for an analysis, why the use phase can overshadow production...

Every MedTech company wants to innovate faster, but most are slowed down by one thing they barely realize is consuming half their development time: technical documentation. In this episode, Karl J. Larsson, co-founder of Aligned, explains how Word- and Excel-based documentation structures create massive inefficiencies, audit delays, and innovation bottlenecks, and how a lean, software-driven approach transforms both speed and confidence. In this conversation, Karl and Lucas discuss: Why up to...

When Thomas Willemsen became CEO of GaleMed Group, he saw an opportunity to redefine medical consumables for a sustainable future. In partnership with Gradical, his team created the BioVent-Circuit — the world’s first anesthesia and ventilation circuit made from sugarcane-based bioplastic. In this conversation, Thomas and Lucas Pianegonda discuss: • How GaleMed turned a concept into a validated, high-performing product • Why sustainability is a strategic advantage, not a cost burd...

Dr. Axel Boese has spent years studying how hospitals can innovate sustainably — and one of his biggest insights challenges the status quo of “single-use.” In most hospitals, medical tools are used once and then thrown away. For something like a cheap plastic syringe, that makes sense. But with a €600 stapler or a €1,300 catheter, the practice becomes both unsustainable and financially wasteful. That’s where hybrid-use comes in. Instead of discarding the entire device, hospitals can reu...

Maximilian Hofmann is Sustainability Manager at Raumedic a leading component supplier, CDMO and medical device manufacturer for some of its products. In the 4 years at Raumedic he established sustainability management systems, ISCC-PLUS certifications for two sites and introduced eco-design into Raumedics development process. Despite all the efforts sustainable products are struggling to take off, in this podcast we want to explore the current challenges of sustainable product development in ...

Damian Carr is a distinguished expert in catheter innovation and globally recognized for his pioneering contributions to minimally invasive medical technologies. He is the author of “The Catheter R&D Handbook and founder of Eyedea Medtech Education where he educates medtech companies and suppliers alike on catheter technology and design. In our discussion we talked about the great clinical benefits that minimally invasive surgical devices bring but also about their single use nature and o...