Building a greener future at Leiden University in 2025
From a vegan community kitchen to a green framework for drug development: sustainability became more visible in everyday campus life at Leiden University in 2025.
Community Kitchen in The Hague
The fully vegan Community Kitchen opened at Leiden University College in The Hague at the start of the year. Students cook affordable, plant-based meals with fruit and vegetables from the market. Originally about fighting food waste, the project soon led to other benefits: it brought students together, made it easier to eat sustainable food and showed how easy making a positive impact is.
Climate change solutions
This was followed by an important international step at the end of March: Leiden University signed the Durham Declaration on deeper cooperation within the Coimbra Group universities on climate change and sustainability. This emphasised the universities’ vital role in the change that needs to happen. This shows that, alongside working within our own walls, our university aims to join a broader academic movement for climate and sustainability.
Sustainability manifesto
In November, Leiden University also took an important step within the Netherlands by signing the Think Green, Act Green manifesto, pledging its support of The Young Academy and The Green Young Academy, who are calling on universities to embed sustainability in their research, teaching, governance and operations. The manifesto aligns closely with the course the university has already charted, although it sometimes places other accents. By signing the manifesto, the university has confirmed its ambition to work more closely with other Dutch knowledge institutions.
Future-proof healthcare
A major step was also taken within our research when Leiden researchers introduced a green framework for drug development. This is the first time that we are systematically examining the environmental impact of different production routes for medical drugs. An analysis of Molnupiravir, an antiviral used to treat covid, showed that there are considerable differences between production methods and that more sustainable options are feasible and essential.
Text: Evani Seymor
Banner: LUC Community Kitchen, photo by Judith van Doorn