On May 9th 2023, LUGO hosted its big Sustainability Day Event, on the theme: the planetary boundaries! The event, which took place at the Academy Building in Leiden, included an opening talk by Prof.dr.ing. Jan Willem Erisman, among others. At the closing, LUGO also awarded its first place prize for…

The effects of sustainability projects on poorer, marginalised people should be considered at a much earlier stage. This is the opinion of Marja Spierenburg, Professor of Anthropology of Sustainable Development and Livelihood, who will give her inaugural lecture on 25 February.

During the development of the Humanities Campus, as many 'green choices' as possibile are being made. This concerns the buildings as well as the surrounding area. Making the campus more sustainable is measured using the BREAAM.NL method.

Marc Koper’s research focuses on electrocatalysis and electrochemical surface science for sustainable energy and chemistry. Reactions of interest are the redox reactions of the oxygen/hydrogen cycle (water oxidation, hydrogen evolution), the carbon cycle (reduction of carbon dioxide, oxidation of small…

Does knowledge of environmental performance change farmer's behaviour?

What is the role of the rebound effect in achieving environmental savings from transport eco-innovation? Are traditional definitions of the rebound effect adequate in the context of transformative innovations and multidimensional environmental issues?

Mission: The Environmental Biology department aims to increase the scientific understanding of how current and emerging anthropogenic threats affect biodiversity and ecosystem services. Through this understanding they facilitate strategic management of natural resources by addressing urgent challenges…

More than 30 members of Programme Committees, Faculty Councils and the University Council met online on 27 November with a mission: how can university co-participation work towards a more sustainable university in terms of education, research, and operations? The Leiden University Green Office and the…

We would like to present to you a simple guidebook about living a sustainable life as a student in the cities of Leiden and The Hague. Whether you are a first-year student still trying to find your way around or already doing your masters – students wanting to explore more sustainable options and save…

Making public space more sustainable is considered very important in this project. The Humanities Campus will become a pleasant place to spend time, with lots of greenery. Here, people can relax and find coolness on hot summer days.

The new Bachelor Honours Programme Sustainability is a unique joint initiative by the LDE Centre for Sustainability and the Honours Academies of Leiden University, Delft University of Technology and Erasmus University Rotterdam (LDE Alliance).

Crises like climate change and loss of biodiversity pose serious challenges for public governance, from the local to the global scale. With the Centre for Governance of Sustainability we contribute to addressing these governance challenges. Our focus is on how policy processes and governance practices…

Masses of hamburgers, steaks, cheese and a lot of eggs: Americans love their animal products. But researcher Oliver Taherzadeh discovered that only a relatively small group of high-volume consumers need to modify their diet to achieve an enormous environmental gain.

Many students are finishing their master thesis on sustainability this summer. In this blog, we reflect on their topics, approaches, and goals by highlighting theses from Governance of Sustainability, European Law, Global Archaeology, Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Ecology, and…

Twenty years from now, the world population is estimated to be around 9 billion people (now 8 billion). In combination with the improvements in living standards and the corresponding growth in consumption, this population will result in an enormous increase in the demand for food, consumables, water…

The authors compare assumptions about normative utility of the term 'environmental refugee' with empirical evidence compared to 'environmental migrant'.

A more efficient solar panel sounds great. But what if these new panels consume more toxic materials, or their production consumes a lot of energy? Leiden environmental scientists, together with colleagues from the Fraunhofer ISE, address this multifaceted question in a new publication in the prestigious…

Analytical tools for environmental design and management in a systems perspective. The combined use of analytical tools.

The publication of the recent IPCC report on climate change has not gone unnoticed, to put it mildly, certainly not within the Liveable Planet community.

What makes a pension scheme sustainable? Most answers to this question have revolved around expert assessments of pension schemes’ affordability or adequacy. This study shifts focus from the financial or social sustainability of pension scheme designs to their political sustainability. The key question…

Leiden University has taken 18th place in the SustainaBul, the sustainability ranking of universities and universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands. A total of 32 institutions took part in this the tenth edition of SustainaBul. Although Leiden University is two places higher than last year,…

Identification of the products or product groups that have the greatest environmental impact from a life-cycle perspective using environmentally extended input-output analysis.

Can the pink-pigmented microbe Methylobacterium extorquens be genetically engineered to convert the sustainable raw material methanol into antibiotics?

On dinsdag 26 juni 2018, Linlin Sun defended her doctoral thesis ‘International Environmental Obligations and Liabilities in Deep Seabed Mining’. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. N.J. Schrijver en Prof. dr. E.C.P.D.C. De Brabandere.

How does the commodification and re-appreciation of the contiguous uplands of Northeast India, Bangladesh and Burma/Myanmar transform the relationship between these states and their upland citizens?

CREEA is a FP7 project on compiling and refining environmental and economic accounts. The project runs from April 2011 to March 2014.

A new study from Leiden researchers shows that the carbon emissions of building materials are set to grow if we do not act rapidly. Even with known interventions implemented in concert, these emissions are much larger than the remaining 1.5 degree budget for building materials at today’s share, the…

On 19 juni 2018 Matthew Gillett defended his doctoral thesis ‘Prosecuting environmental harm before the international criminal court’. His supervisor is prof. dr. L.J. van den Herik.

Promotores: Prof. dr. G.R. (Geert) de Snoo, Dr. E. (Ester) van der Voet

Promotor: Prof.dr. M.K. Richardson, Co-Promotor: F. Witte

The Faculty of Law is becoming more sustainable in many ways, both in teaching and research.

Latest since Rutger Bregman’s “Utopia for Realists”, Universal Basic Income (UBI) has caught public attention again as a possible solution for many societal issues. Watch the event back via the video below.

Our current lifestyle is not sustainable, and we know it. Our carbon-based economy causes climate change, and our livestock threatens the rainforests. We also know what we ought to do to save the planet: decarbonize the economy and change our diet. However, too many people lack the moral motivation…

A recent study in Ecological Economics, led by Leiden environmental scientist Bertram de Boer, states that the European Union could lower its environmental footprint by carefully selecting the countries from which it imports goods. The publication was picked up by Science for Environment Policy, a news…

The plans for making the University Library (UB) more sustainable will be carried out in three steps: first the glazing at the front of the building will be replaced with HR++ glass, then the skylights will be renewed and finally the air conditioning system will be updated. Once these steps have been…

Review of new technical decisionsupport systems in the environmental field, and application in water management decission processes.

Acidobacteria is a widely distributed phylum but their functional roles in ecosystem processes are still largely elusive.

The Sustainability Research Cluster fosters dialogue and collaboration among anthropologists and sociologists researching aspects of socio-cultural, ecological, and economic sustainability in and affiliated with the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology. It also seeks to stimulate…

Rich countries are getting richer because of environmentally polluting (construction) investments from the past, largely at the expense of poor countries. This was shown by long-term economic and environmental data. 'The gap between poor and rich countries is widening.' Scientists from the Leiden Institute…

The following report discusses a survey on the topic of the Sustainable Development Goals that was distributed among researchers at Leiden University in the month of November 2021.

Dr. Gruni published an article on the impact on sustainable development in the EU Common Commercial Policy of recent Opinion 2/15 CJEU on the Global Trade and Customs Journal.

What are the key issues in conducting LCA of bioenergy systems? What is the environmental sustainability status of second generation bioethanol? How much would the final results of biogenic carbon neutrality assumptions deviate from the true values based on a complete inventory? How to assess the impact…

In this project, we will study the genetic and environmental drivers of woodiness and stem lignification at the level of plant‐to‐gene‐to‐molecule.

To explore the potential of marine microorganisms as producers of novel antimicrobial agents and as bioprotectants in aqua- and agriculture, using an integrative, ecology-based strategy for bioprospecting.

While offshore wind farms generate clean and green energy, scientists are becoming increasingly aware of the harmful impact they may have on marine life. To get a better overview of these impacts and to find the best locations for future wind farms, environmental scientist Yali Si and her colleagues…

When oil is harvested from the seeds of the oil palm tree, the fruit residue can be used to make bio-ethanol. However, it can also be used as a fertilizer on palm tree plantations; which option is best for the environment? Edi Wiloso compared the two green options at the Institute of Environmental Sciences…