Making a Real-World Impact on Campus

What role should the university play in the climate crisis?

The month of October saw LUGO host an active Green Morning to celebrate the opening of the largest green solar roof of the Benelux (located on the rooftop of the Snellius building!).

LUGO’s monthly Green Drinks are open to students and staff of Leiden University to connect with the LUGO community of staff, board members, committee members, and volunteers. Share your ideas for a sustainability project, connect with like-minded students and staff, and have a Green Drink on us! Don’t…

Roll your sustainable sleeves! Our students and staff have found various ways to do just that, both at home and at our university.

The Law School Green Team is the very first Green Team created by LUGO. We work on making our faculty as sustainable as possible. We’re dedicated to promoting a greener and more eco-friendly faculty, so we can all contribute to a better environment! In addition to our green initiatives, we also organize…

"A Green Office (GO) is a platform for sustainability that is established and run by students with the support of the university or Applied Sciences school staff members. The primary goal of a GO is to ensure that the institution is becoming more sustainable in all its facets. This way, the sustainable…

This is the most recent Green Team! We're so excited to gather new members and make a difference at the FSW faculty. Join today!

The Green Teams were launched by the Leiden University Green Office (LUGO) in 2023 to bring sustainability directly into faculty buildings. Each team represents LUGO at their faculty, supports the implementation of sustainability policies, and develops its own projects and events. The Hague Green…

The Green Teams were launched by the Leiden University Green Office (LUGO) in 2023 to bring sustainability directly into faculty buildings. Each team represents LUGO at their faculty, supports the implementation of sustainability policies, and develops its own projects and events. As the second Green…

Leiden University Green Office (LUGO) aims to promote sustainability in its teaching, research and operations. It is therefore supporting the University in the transition to a sustainable future.

Bikes are one of the most sustainable ways of travel which use should be promoted by the University.

Acknowledging the work and effort of Leiden University staff is one step closer to having a more sustainable University.

Welcome to Leiden University Green Office!

Urbanisation is steadily increasing with estimates expecting that 68% of the global population will live in cities by 2050. To accommodate the rural to urban transition, large quantities of land are transformed from natural to urban lands.

This article argues that opposition to government green investments is conditional on the method of financing.

Advances in the field of high-performance Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets, by re-engineering their microstructure to make them more powerful while reducing rare earth content.

It’s Not Easy Being Green – but we’re here to help! Do you want to live more sustainably but have no idea where to start? Are you interested in making the world greener and do you want to get to the bottom of hot topics? Or are you sceptical about climate change and do you want to hear about the…

On 19 February 2020, Richard Jiang defended his thesis '‘Greening’ the WTO Ban on China’s Export Duties'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. M.C.E.J. Bronckers.

In ancient times, the steppe in the hinterland of Petra (Jordan) was transformed into a green oasis. This project tries to shed insights in the agricultural, water management and societal processes resulting in this transformation. This will be accomplished by practicing an interdisciplinary research…

Promotor: E.F. Smets, Co-promotor: J. Geml

PhD defence

Understanding how nature captures and transfers solar energy is essential both for elucidating biological photosynthesis and for guiding the design of artificial light-harvesting systems.

Green infrastrucuture (GI) like urban farm and green roofs could provide many beneficial functions in cities. These include for example food production, flood prevention or increasing biodiversity. MultiGreen project aims at developing an integrated modelling tool to support…

This thesis addresses the challenge of sustainable urban development by analyzing the interplay between green and grey infrastructure to optimize resource use and ecosystem services.

Promotor: E.F. Smets Co-promotor: J. Geml

Africa is seen as a potential leader in green hydrogen production for domestic consumption, export and greening industry. One key barrier to realising this potential is the mismatch of skills between those required by industry and the capability of local workforces.

‘A university is a slow-moving institution, which is in many ways a good thing,' commented student Josephine Rook at the opening of the Leiden University Green Office on 27 September in the Hortus botanicus. ‘Sustainability is not about following the latest trends, but about making structural improv…

What role should the university play in the climate crisis?

Develop a prototype combined chemical-microbial enzymatical process for the sustainable, green recycling and revalorization of polyamides and polystyrene

Promotores: Prof.dr. C.A.M.J.J. van den Hondel, Prof.dr. V. Meyer (Technische Universität Berlin)

As a contribution to the changing legislation and evolving societal attitudes concerning environmental issues, this project aims to enhance and manipulate the plants’ own natural defense mechanisms against western flower thrips (WFT).

How can the integration of innovative technologies, circular material flows, and resource efficiency strategies accelerate the transition to a CO₂-neutral, circular, and high-tech steel sector by 2050, and how can Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Material Flow Analysis (MFA), and Techno-Economic Analysis…

Knowledge institutions play a unique role in society and can contribute to a future-proof and sustainable world. That’s why Leiden University has signed the ‘Think green, act green’ manifesto. The manifesto is the initiative of The Young Academy and The Green Young Academy, who are calling on universities…

Charisma K. Lepcha (PI, Sikkim University), Pradyut Guha (co-PI, Sikkim University), Rajib Sutradhar (co-PI, Christ University Bangalore) and Erik de Maaker (Leiden University) have been awarded a two-year grant of USD 18.000 to conduct research on the impact of ‘green farming’ on the sensitive mountain…

From simulations of galaxies to analyses of MRI scans: scientific research needs more and more computing power. Leiden University is planning to set up a completely new facility for high-performance computing. The green light was given officially on 20 June.

LUGO got the opportunity to present the Green Paper at the third lunch session of the Liveable Planet initiative on the 25th of May.

Urban green infrastructure has the ability to make make cities more sustainable. However, the exact implementation of green infrastructure and the choices that must be made during implementation, are still topic for discussion. In the Future Cities podcast, environmental scientist Joeri Morpurgo chats…

The number of insect species is plummeting, which is why the University is creating a more biodiverse environment around its buildings. Annetje Ottow, President of the Executive Board, planted the first bee-friendly plants in the front garden of Oude UB on 20 September.

A plant that takes metal from the ground all by itself: a natural way to mine or to clean the soil. PhD student Roderick Bouman (Hortus Botanicus Leiden) described a new plant species from Sabah, Borneo, which can be used to extract nickel. In an open access article in Botanical studies, he and the…

It’s Not Easy Being Green – but we’re here to help! Listen via the link in our bio! Do you want to live more sustainably but have no idea where to start? Are you interested in making the world greener and do you want to get to the bottom of hot topics? Or are you sceptical about climate change and…

Leiden has one of the most petrified inner-cities of The Netherlands. This is not beneficial for the biodiversity crisis and Leiden University, with a significant number of buildings within the Singels. The priority should be to make a positive impact on the matter.

Got some good ideas for making studying and working at the university greener? If so, share them with the Leiden University Green Office.

The enthusiastic finalists of the Sustainable Business Battle proved that sustainability and business can go together well. Fire in their bellies, they pitched their green solutions, ranging from an Energy Race app for DUWO to a cycle parking facility covered with plants at the Bio Science Park.

Following developments in the US, the EU has now also opened the door for large-scale State aid to its own sustainable industries. A means to curb China’s power. However, this plan is driving the EU and the US apart.