The master’s specialisation Biodiversity and Sustainability at Leiden University provides students with a much better understanding of the biological processes which are essential for creating a sustainable society.

Leiden University is aware of its role in society and wants to create a green, healthy and inclusive campus and have a positive impact on the field of climate and circularity.

How to get involved in sustainability? Read more about four projects that Leiden University helped realise in the past few years.

Watch the Sustainable Career Event back!

Leiden University enables students to play a role in the sustainability challenges of the coming decades. Good scientific research and education are crucial for a safe, healthy, sustainable, prosperous and just world. In Leiden students are being taught the knowledge and skills that are important for…

The university aims to expose all students to sustainability topics and issues that are relevant to their field during their time studying here. Students are educated to become academic professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills to contribute to the sustainability transition.

In 2016, CML published over 90 papers, successfully crowdfunded the Living Lab project, celebrated a royal honour for associate professor Hans de Iongh and contributed to the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas. CML awarded five PhDs and taught students from all over the world how to contribute to sustainability.…

In 2015, CML published over 70 papers, contributed to the United Nations conference on climate change in Paris, won awards and advised the Dutch government on the safe use of pesticides. CML awarded 11 PhDs and taught students from all over the world how to contribute to sustainability. We wish you…

In 2017, In 2017 we published over 70 papers, appointed two new professors, researched microplastic contamination in European beach sediment and modelled future energy demand. We awarded six PhDs and taught students from all over the world how to contribute to sustainability. We wish you a pleasant…

duurzaamheidsthema's onderzoek

Are you in the final stage of your bachelor or master program? And do you want to research a topic that has to do with sustainability? Then, this document is the right one for you. In this document, several sustainability related topics from a variety of studies is coming together which can give you…

Promotores: E. van Dijk, G.R. de Snoo. Co-promotor: H. Staats

If mankind wants to survive into the 22nd century, we will need to change the way we live drastically. The human impact on our planet is everywhere, we are changing the atmosphere, the oceans and the land, leading to global warming, climate change, loss of biodiversity and pervasive pollution. There…

The Sustainable City Map serves as a comprehensive guide to achieve a sustainable lifestyle within the city. Whether you’re new in town or just looking to make greener choices, this map has something for everyone!

Take a view on the slides of the presentation and read what the event of Sustainable Travel was about.

Fossil Free against KLM on greenwashing, municipalities against Chemours on PFAS discharge, climate cases against Shell and ING Bank… There are many examples of recent civil lawsuits on sustainability. But does climate litigation in the civil courts actually have an effect?

The relationship between States and foreign corporations are regulated by international economic law and international investment law in particular. Any disputes between States and foreign corporations must therefore also be solved by reference to this body of public international law, for example when…

Are you a student, resident, civil servant or scientist and want to participate in devising or conducting research to make Hague neighborhoods more sustainable? Then read on.

A liveable planet. More biodiversity. And resources which are being managed wisely. At the CML, we want to make an impact with our research and education. On this website you can read what we do to achieve that.

Exploring linkages between energy and material use and implications for sustainable development.

Governance of Sustainability

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.

Does knowledge of environmental performance change farmer's behaviour?

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.

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?

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…

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…

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…

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.

In 2021, the eleventh Conference of the International Society for Industrial Ecology will take place in Leiden. The Institute of Environmental Sciences Leiden (CML) has been elected to host the next biennial meeting at the latest conference of the Society in Beijing, China. ‘Industrial ecology can play…

How can the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework developed in the SSbD4CheM project facilitate the creation of safer and more sustainable chemicals and materials across various industries?

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…

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…

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

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

A new report reveals five actions that leaders can take to contribute to economic development, advance global security and sustainability, and make space a safe and globally accessible domain.

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…

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

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…

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.

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,…

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

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

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?

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.