KDIGO is pleased to announce the online publication of the conference report Green Dialysis: Environmentally Sustainable Care, Growth, and Innovation: Conclusions from a KDIGO Controversies Conference in Kidney International.
The report summarizes discussions and conclusions from the 2025 KDIGO Controversies Conference on Green Dialysis, which convened clinicians, researchers, patients, and other experts to explore opportunities to reduce dialysis-related environmental impacts while maintaining high-quality care and expanding dialysis access. Discussions examined how innovation, policy, and collaboration among healthcare professionals, systems, and industries could support more sustainable dialysis practices.
“Dialysis is life-sustaining for millions of people, yet it is also one of the most resource-intensive treatments in modern medicine,” said Katherine Barraclough, MD (Australia), Co-Chair of the conference. “Each hemodialysis treatment can require hundreds of liters of water and generate considerable medical waste, and those impacts accumulate across millions of treatments delivered every year. Our discussions focused on how innovation in dialysis technologies, clinical practice, and health systems can help reduce this footprint while continuing to deliver the highest standard of patient care.”
Although improving sustainability in kidney care begins early in the disease course by promoting kidney health, preventing disease progression, and expanding access to alternatives such as transplantation and supportive care, opportunities exist to reduce the environmental burden of dialysis. Conference participants identified key challenges and opportunities for advancing environmentally sustainable dialysis, including innovations in dialysis technology, resource use reduction, life-cycle assessment of dialysis products, and health system strategies to support greener kidney care.
“One of the most powerful elements of the conference was hearing directly from patients about how the volume of dialysis supplies and waste affects their daily lives,” said Jennifer Flythe, MD (United States), Co-Chair of the conference. “Their perspectives underscored that sustainability is not just about environmental responsibility. It is also about designing kidney care systems that are thoughtful, efficient, and capable of meeting the needs of patients around the world.”
A second paper from the conference, focused on KDIGO’s analysis of the environmental impact of the conference and strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of in-person meetings, is now available in Kidney International Reports.
Visit the conference website to download the report and for additional green dialysis resources, or read the report in Kidney International.