HEALTHCARE ESTATES
IHEEM: Shaping the future of healthcare estates
Tania Davies, COO at the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management (IHEEM), has played a central role in transforming the Institute and supporting its members through some of the industry’s biggest challenges. In conversation with HEJ, she discusses the future of Healthcare Estates, IHEEM’s sustainability drive, inspiring the next generation of engineers, and why collaboration remains key to future success.
Healthcare Estates 2025 is shaping up to be a major industry event – what can attendees expect this year, and what are you most excited about? The programme is really good this year – we’ve got some great keynotes. For me, one of the nicest things is that one of our keynotes is going to be two young people – one of whom won our Innovation in Wellbeing and Healthcare Engineering Award as part of The Big Bang Competition, and the other was the EngineeringUK’s Young Engineer of the Year. I’m very excited about seeing both of them present. New to the closing session this year will be our IHEEM Branch Awards, to be presented to the ‘Champion of Champions’ of each branch, which is a change in format from previous years. There’ll be networking with canapes and drinks for people at the awards, giving a chance for members to share updates and how things are likely to move forward. For me more broadly, it’s all about the networking
– that’s the most exciting bit. Walking through and not quite realising just how many people you know on all the stands. It’s probably the best networking opportunity within the whole industry. We’re also offering free coffee in mornings and
afternoons for everybody this year, that’s new for exhibitors. So those are the best things in my opinion, but it’s just a really good event in general.
How is IHEEM working to support ESG (environment, social and governance) initiatives and sustainability in healthcare estates, and do you see members’ priorities changing in this space? As an Institute, we’ve tried to lead the way, and by example, in sustainability. As part of our recent Head Office redevelopment, we aimed to be as sustainable as possible to show what you can actually achieve on a
All of our Trusts are aiming towards Net Zero, I just don’t know how easy it’s going to be to get there. My personal opinion is that it’s going to be incredibly difficult
22 Health Estate Journal October 2025
refurbishment. Heating and hot water now come from an air source heat pump, there’s a new ventilation extraction system, solar panels, and dimmer LED lights which go on and off automatically to improve energy efficiency. We think approaches like this can help support the NHS to get to Net Zero. Many of our members and companies are doing a lot of good work in this area, and Steven Heape, who runs our sustainability platform, will be at Healthcare Estates this year, talking about all of this and more.
All of our Trusts are aiming towards Net Zero, I just don’t
know how easy it’s going to be to get there. My personal opinion is that it’s going to be incredibly difficult.
What’s the biggest barrier for companies to achieve Net Zero? Energy – the sheer amount of energy needed, and finding a sustainable source for it. Ground source heat is becoming an area of greater exploration for some of members, for example. It’s also cost – that’s a massive barrier. The maintenance
backlog is so big already, and priorities are in different areas. There’s just no funding to do all the work. The Carbon Energy Fund do a fantastic job of supporting projects to enable them to actually deliver significant improvements in energy efficiency across Trust estates. It’s difficult, but people are doing their best, doing what they can – and maybe they’ll get there.
Membership is at the heart of IHEEM – how are you increasing membership, and what do you see as the biggest benefits for members? We’ve been very lucky that our membership has been growing organically at five per cent a year, so in the last
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