Sunnybrook Hospital Collaboration
A waste diversion mural made from up-cycled hospital waste inspired by the beautiful grounds of Sunnybrook Hospital
Diverting Waste into Art
The Sunnybrook Hospital Art Installation is a large-scale, research-driven artwork created by m polo designs for the Green Task Force at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. It repurposes diverted hospital and operational waste to create a striking three-dimensional installation rooted in environmental education and highlights Sunnybrook’s healthcare-sustainability actions and advancements. The project aims to bring attention to the impact of hospital-generated waste while creating a lasting, engaging art feature within the hospital environment.
This piece is rooted in material reuse, reclamaition and environmental storytelling. It reflects Sunnybrook’s ongoing commitment to examining sustainable solutions to the systems of GROW - Green buildings and surrounding grounds - Research, education and culture - clinical Operations - and Waste and Procurment. Honoring the histories and origins of Sunnybrook as a Veteran's Hospital, Grown from Away pays tribute to bravery and courge our soldiers put forth for our freedoms we are grateful for today. The design draws inspiration from the expansive natural landscape that surrounds the Bayview campus and highlights the role nature plays in recovery and healing for its patients, staff and visitors alike. The installation creates space for dialogue around institutional waste, climate responsibility, and the role of healthcare in environmental leadership. It incorporates materials currently found in the hospital’s waste stream, along with items that are no longer in use as Sunnybrook shifts away from unnecessary single-use products and back to more sustinable and intutative practices. By using these discarded materials, Grown from Away, directly reflects the hospital’s transition toward more sustainable systems and invites viewers to consider the long-term impact of institutional habits and choices.
Grown From Away
Grown From Away, reimagines what we discard. Born from materials once cast “away,” this piece asks: where is away? What becomes of the things we let go? In transforming waste into wonder, it reveals the quiet potential of the overlooked, the bloom beneath the burden. A meditation on value, memory, nature and renewal, it invites us to consider not just what we throw ‘away’, but what we might grow back in its place.
​The project began in August 2024 and is currently in the final design phase. The team is working closely with Sunnybrook’s construction department to coordinate installation logistics. Internal stakeholder consultations are complete, and the artwork is on track for completion by late Summer 2025.
Grown From Away, 132” x 72” x 9”
Length (Horizontal): 11 feet
Height (Vertical): 6 feet
Depth (From Wall Outward): 0.75 feet
