PRINCE (for Policy Relevant Indicators for Consumption and Environment) was a three-year project set up to explore ways to improve and expand the set of indicators used to estimate the environmental impacts linked to Swedish consumption, both within Sweden and abroad. Any new methods and indicators…

Promotor: Ed F. Deprettere, Co-promotor: Todor P. Stefanov

Do sustainability values play a role in motivating people to act for biodiversity in successful projects and in successful leadership action? And how could these values be incorporated in current economic valuation methods?

Eco-innovations like more economical cars do not generate the environmental benefits predicted by the manufacturers. This is the result of the so-called rebound effect, concludes Leiden industrial ecologist David Font Vivanco on the basis of new algorithms. PhD defence 3 March.

On Sustainable Tuesday, two weeks before Dutch Budget Day, the Dutch cabinet receives a suitcase full of sustainable ideas and initiatives. The initiators' aim: to make the government plans for the upcoming year a little more sustainable. At the Leiden Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), assistant…

The Leiden University Green Office is pleased to announce its Spring Poetry competition, on the theme: (Environmental) Guilt!

How do young people pursue their interests in and across multiple contexts while participating in tailor-made programs in vocational education and training (VET) and social enterprises to regain perspective in school and work?

Inaugural lecture

To gain more insight into the evolutionary development of orchid flowers and fruits, the orchid species Erycina pusilla was studied. The evolutionary origin of the median petaloid sepal, the callus on the labellum, and the stelidia was studied.

Predictors of work functioning in persons with multiple sclerosis

Prof.dr.ir. Hai-Xiang Lin is appointed on 1 March 2015 as part-time professor on Data Analytics for Environmental Modelling at CML on behalf of the R. Timman foundation. He will join the CML-department of Industrial Ecology. He has a position at the Department of Applied Mathematics at the Faculty…

Did you know that algorithms can help with the prevention of air pollution and ships sinking in the sea? A team of Leiden University researchers have worked together with the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management to look in data-driven inspection of ships. In this interview, Gerrit Jan…

Exploring the Meanings of Lands and Forests as an Avenue for Mutual Development of People and Nature in Ghana

We use zebrafish as a model organism to study human development and disease as well as animal welfare and environmental impact.

Economic law, environmental law and human rights are important fields of law for sustainable development. But they do not interact sufficiently, which makes it difficult to implement sustainable development.

On Tuesday 26 June Linlin Sun will defend her dissertation entitled ‘International Environmental Obligations and Liabilities in Deep Seabed Mining’. The dissertation has been written under the supervision of prof. dr. N.J. Schrijver and prof. dr. E.C.P.D.C. De Brabandere.

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…

The Environmental Sciences Research Prize 2012 has been awarded to CML researcher David Font Vivanco by the Environmental Scientists Association of Catalonia.

On Thursday 7 May, Jolanda van der Vliet obtained her PhD based on her dissertation 'The International Protection of Environmental Refugees. A human rights-based, security and State responsibility approach.' The defence was held online. Jolanda worked on her dissertation under the supervision of the…

Life cycle assessment (LCA) reveals the total environmental impact of products or production processes, and EU rules are going to make this even more important.

The book ‘Forty years of Leiden Environmental Science’ is available in digital format (PDF). It relates to the history of the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML).

With a single sample of water or soil, researches can analyse the DNA of everything that is living in that environment. During her research, PhD candidate Beilun Zhao discovered a way to analyse not only the kind of species, but also the age of the species in a water sample. The method showed its first…

The environment also benefits when people follow national nutritional guidelines, Paul Behrens demonstrated in research published in PNAS. The publication attracted media attention both at home and internationally.

Majuka Tanabe defended her thesis on 17 June 2015

Starting with the ‘why’, putting herself in her students’ shoes and providing structure. These are three ways in which environmental scientist Ranran Wang tries to make her course as interesting and manageable as possible. With success: she has been nominated for Science Teacher of the Year 2022.

This project explores themes at the intersection of maritime history and environmental history by looking at the problems Dutch ships encountered in the different climates of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds, and the solutions they could provide.

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…

Freshwater and brackish water ecosystems are arguably the most vulnerable ecosystems on earth, due to concentrated human developments in and around them. The Pontocaspian (PC) region located at the border of Europe and Asia contains a variety of brackish water ecosystems and unique inhabitants, known…

The coming two years the Van Vollenhoven Institute (VVI, Leiden University) and ICEL (the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law) will collaborate to improve environmental regulation in Indonesia.

The first biennial symposium Environmental History in the Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries is scheduled for October 25 and 26, 2024. This event aims to facilitate the exchange of recent research, ongoing projects, and key discussions within the realm of environmental history among scholars from…

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 aim is to develop methods to assess environmental and occupational exposure to (individual) pesticides, to be applied in epidemiological studies investigating pesticide exposure and human health. Furthermore, we aim to investigate the potential association between exposure to pesticides and Parkinson’s…

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…

We are excited to announce the book publication of our alumnus Dr. Budhaditya Chattopadhyay: The Auditory Setting Environmental Sounds in Film and Media Arts.

On 13 October 2023, Tuvana Aras, PhD Candidate at the Europa Institute and the International Institute of Air & Space Law, took part in the Second Max Planck Law Conference for Young European Scholars hosted by the Max Planck European Law Group in Frankfurt, Germany.

How can prospective LCA be streamlined in a way that its practical application in research and technology development increases?

More than three quarters of the 237 million Indonesian population has no access to tap water. They are dependent on water from rivers often polluted by industry. Laure d’Hondt conducted research into why it is so difficult to tackle these polluters and will defend her PhD dissertation on 17 October.

We present our plans on five work areas: Students, Inclusive Education, Staff, Research, and Accessible and Inclusive Learning and Working Environment. For each work area, we explain which topics are relevant and what policy measures we (plan to) take.