According to GreenMetric, in 2020, Leiden University will be in 8th place in the global sustainability ranking UI GreenMetric. In this memo, participation in this ranking is evaluated, points for improvement are given and an ambition suggestion is made for 2021.

Pharma company Janssen has begun construction on a new office and lab building at the Leiden Bio Science Park. The first pile of the 13,500 square metre building has been driven into the ground.

Physics professor Jan Aarts starts a collaboration with chip manufacturer Intel to perform fundamental research in low-power, cryogenic computing.

The thermostat in Leiden University’s buildings will be turned down by two degrees. The temperature will also be adjusted in rooms that are cooled. This is the University’s response to the government’s call to use less energy.

As UN Youth Delegate on Sustainable Development, Leiden student Aoife Fleming is currently in Madrid for the UN Climate Change Conference COP25.

CML researcher Sterre Ter Haar has made the front page of The Washington Post with her research into declining nutritional values. ‘We hope this is a piece of the puzzle that says: perhaps we should take this seriously and find out what is happening to our food.’

The ability to collect and interpret huge quantities of data has become indispensable to society and academia. Leiden University is a knowledge and expertise centre for data science that places the emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation.

Leiden Law School has a strong tradition of research in the field of fact-finding and evidence in criminal cases.

Leiden chemist Marc Koper is the winner of the 2017 Faraday Medal for his significant contribution to electrochemistry, from fundamental science to practical application.

No more smelly lorries disposing of building waste or delivering building materials to the centre of Leiden. That’s Leiden University’s ambition for its future renovation or construction projects in the city centre. Electric boats should make the process cleaner and less inconvenient for the people…

Leiden University has started the sustainable demolition of the old LCP building of the Faculty of Science.

LUGO has some news: If you are using a public computer from Leiden University, you can now set your default search engine to Ecosia.

Several cases inspired by the Urgenda case have now been filed. For example, by the Portuguese, concerning widespread forest fires, Swiss women of a somewhat respectable age (known as the ‘KlimaSeniorrinnen’) who suffer from the heat, and the mayor of a French city situated by the sea who fears the…

On 11 May 2016 a prestigious NWO Vidi grant (NWO's Innovation Research Incentives scheme) has been awarded to Nadia Soudzilovskaia for her research proposal entitled “Do mycorrhizal fungi mediate soil carbon fate?”, aimed to understand mycorrhizal impact on soil carbon sequestration.

Leiden professors Dirk Bouwmeester and Irene Groot are jointly investigating the concept of a circular power plant. Research that contributes to new solutions for storing surplus renewable energy, generating electricity during periods of power shortage, and recycling CO₂.

Youth crime has plummeted in the Netherlands. Good news, you might think. Yet we need to look critically at existing sanctions, says Professor by Special Appointment André van der Laan in his inaugural lecture. ‘We should evaluate whether our response is just.’

Leiden University has become more sustainable in the past few years, but it could do better, particularly in the area of teaching and research. A student and staff workgroup is preparing a new Sustainability Vision 2030. Programme Manager Daphne van den Berg explains how this is taking shape and where…

National Meat Free Week (Nationale Week Zonder Vlees, 7–13 March) is an initiative to reduce meat consumption. Assistant professor Paul Behrens is studying what impact a change in our food consumption would have on the world. What, according to him, are the main reasons to switch to a (mainly) plant-based…

‘Over the last few years we have focused much more on our environmental policy and have got better at telling the world what we do,’ says Jan van der Boon, Director of Administration at the Leiden University Administration and Central Services Department. This is how he explains Leiden’s impressive…

An international team of astronomers led by Ardjan Sturm of the Observatory has made the first two-dimensional inventory of ice in a planet-forming disk of dust and gas surrounding a young star. The researches, including Melissa McClure, used the James Webb Space Telescope and publish their findings…

After decades of intensive farming, the peatland area is under pressure. Researchers, farmers and policymakers work together in the Polderlab to identify future-proof types of agriculture. ‘It’s unbelievable how quickly the system bounces back without intensive fertilisation.’

An Institute of Environmental Sciences, ambitious goals for energy, water and CO2 emissions. Leiden University plans to take the lead on sustainability - in research, teaching and raising awareness.

Online services are stored on servers in data centres. Remko Fermin researched methods to make the memory in data centres more energy efficient.

If European countries rely solely on technological advances, they won't be able to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees. Households will also need to change their lifestyles. This 'inconvenient truth' is the result of calculations done by industrial ecologist Stephanie Cap. ‘It's not a popular message,…

Can astronomers mitigate climate change? This is what Leiden astronomer Leonard Burtscher and his colleagues discussed at the annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society. For the second year in a row, the meeting was online. And according to Burtscher, it should stay that way. During a special…

Researching as a student how you can make your own student house free of natural gas. That is now possible because of a new collaboration between Leiden University and the municipality of Leiden and The Hague.

Cutting down global emissions of greenhouse gases to combat global warming won’t do the trick alone: we also need negative-emissions technology that can capture carbon dioxide directly out of the air. In the prestigious journal Global Environmental Change, PhD candidate Oscar Rueda and colleagues shed…

A banker who puts making money second and makes a profit nonetheless. A farmer who stops ploughing and using insecticides but still has a good harvest. A new white paper by Leiden-Delft-Erasmus and Naturalis Biodiversity Center shows how the meeting of disciplines provides solutions to climate change…

Everyone can contribute to a better climate. One thing you can do is to turn the heating down in your room and wear a warmer sweater! Leiden University is taking part in the Warm Sweater Day again this year. On 2 February the heating will be turned down to 16 degrees in as many University buildings…

The Directorate-General for the Environment of the European Commission has granted the project entitled “Initiating A Public Dialogue on Environment Protection in the Context of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Negotiations” to a consortium led by The Institute for European…

Leiden University has taken eighth place in this year’s SustainaBul, the sustainability ranking for universities and universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands. It was in 18th place last year.

Leiden University's 2017 annual report has now been published. This year for the first time the University has also published a separate sustainability report. Leiden University is the first university to produce a separate report on the progress of its sustainability policies.

In Dutch the public arena, there’s talk of curbing labour migration. Which options do the Dutch have? Olaf van Vliet, Professor of Economics at Leiden University, discusses this issue in Dutch daily newspaper NRC.

Soil ecologists Emilia Hannula (Leiden) and Elly Morriën (UvA) received the Golden Medal of Teylers Tweede Genootschap on 5 November. They received the prize for their submission to a competition on sustainable soil management.

On June 2nd Roy de Winter has won the G. Rosenberg Research Award from the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS). De Winter was presented with the award during the celebration of the LIACS' 25th anniversary. The new award is intended for promising PhD students at LIACS.

Although the weather in the Netherlands will always be unpredictable, June might be the month to say with certainty that the temperatures will be pleasing enough for a ride on your bicycle. Aside from the benefits for your (mental) health, you will also make a positive impact on the environment. Start…

A new study in Nature Plants has explored the most important organising principles that control vegetation behaviour. The insights from this study can be used to improve predictions on climate change. Leiden scientists Peter van Bodegom and Nadia Soudzilovskaia participated in the study.

Leiden University is working hard to make its buildings more sustainable, also on the Humanities Campus. An important step in this context is the construction of a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system. Following the successful completion of the first phase, in which the Herta Mohr building was connected…

Labour migration is an important theme in the Dutch general election to be held this month. Olaf van Vliet, Professor of Economics, spoke to public broadcaster NOS about policy options related to migrant workers.

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…

Crises like climate change and loss of biodiversity threaten our planet. That’s why sustainability is an important topic in research and education across Leiden University. On this website you read how scientists from many disciplines work together in researching sustainability.

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2018, as well as special appointments and royal distinctions.

By working together with external social partners, the knowledge of our scientists finds its way into society.

PhD, Staff

PhD, Staff

10 October is the Day of Sustainability. What is the current status of sustainability at Leiden University? Things are moving ahead. Professor of Environmental Biology and Dean of the Faculty of Science, Geert de Snoo, outlines a new prospect: biodiversity.

Fewer CO2 emissions, less airborne viral transmission, and a more sustainable form of food production: seven consortia of researchers and societal partners will put a budget of 32 million euros towards developing technological innovations. Important Leiden research on circular electronics by Prof. Dr.…

The 14 universities, brought together in the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), have expressed their support for the open letter on the climate that has already been signed by almost 1,300 staff members. The letter calls on the universities to pursue an ambitious climate agenda of…

Which molecules go into forming planets? PhD candidate Christian Eistrup and his colleagues have created new models to research this question. Their findings could change our idea of which molecules were forming Jupiter or even Earth.

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…