Sustainability Guide & Energy Saving

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 energy: this guide can help you along! If you have any questions, remarks or comments, please contact us via the email addresses listed on the website. We would love to hear your feedback and make the guide more complete!

Save more energy yourself

Check your frames and mask off any cracks.
Are you not using a device? Then remove the plug from the wall socket.
Take a critical look at the appliances in the (shared) kitchen or fusion. Do you really need all those fridges? Fridges over 8 years old are energy guzzlers, so see if you or your landlord can replace them with an A +++ labeled fridge (recouped on your energy bill within 5 years).
An easy one: turn the heating down a degree or two and put on a warm sweater and get your blanket. It is unbelievable how much this saves for an entire heating season.
Cook with lids on the pans and do not turn the heat higher than necessary.
Shower a little shorter and with a water-saving shower head. An hourglass in the shower can help. Every day 30 sec. taking a cold shower also keeps you fitter and healthier.
Only heat the water you need with the kettle. Also handy: put a thermos bottle next to the kettle and put your leftover hot water in it.
LED lamps pay for themselves quickly, are 85% more efficient than the 20th century incandescent lamp and give the same warm light. Choose the right LED lamp.
Stick radiator foil to the wall behind the heater, this will prevent heat from disappearing outside through the wall.
Check the Klimaatklappers of Milieu-Centraal; arrange necessary items at the webshop of the ''woonwijzer' and for Leiden residents: spend your Ga-Goed voucher with 70 euros before 31 March 2021.
Check the website of your municipality to see if they have any interesting campaigns to live more sustainably! Often there are also financial benefits.

Actions undertaken by Leiden University

Leiden University has been participating in Multi-Year Energy Agreements (MJA-3; 2005-2020) for more than ten years and achieves approximately 2% energy reduction every year. Our energy consumption per student + employee is decreasing, as is our gas consumption (compare with about 3000 households). Yet that is not enough. That is why a roadmap to energy-neutral buildings in 2050 will be published in 2021 (according to the climate agreement). This contains the planning how to achieve a 49% CO2 emission reduction in 2030 and 95% in 2050 (compared to 1990) with all buildings. A very complex task with 15% listed buildings.
The Gorlaeus building is connected to the heat-cold storage in the ground (= almost natural gas-free). The lecture halls building and the new sports / examination center will also be connected to a heat-cold storage in the coming years. In 2021, new heat-cold storagesources will be installed in the city center for the Humanities Campus. The aim is to phase out more than 50% of the natural gas until 2030 (compared to 2019).
In the Snellius, the heat from the data centers will be used to heat the building. Leiden University ensures every year that the CO2 emissions from gas and electricity consumption are compensated / greened by purchasing Guarantees of origin from Dutch wind (since 2017) and Verified Emission Reduction credits.
The lecture halls building of Leiden University is the largest solar panel roof in Leiden (approx. 1241 panels; 400,000 kWh). We will surpass that ourselves in 2021 with an even larger sunroof on the new parking garage to be built at the Leiden BioScience park. The total number of solar panels on all roofs provides approximately 1% of our energy supply. That sounds low, but it is well known that the university has an electricity consumption of almost 16,000 households.
The energy consumption of each building of Leiden University can be found via 'duurzaamheid in beeld' image (scroll with your mouse over the map of the Campus for the right building and find out how much gas and electricity is used).

Click here for the guide: Sustainable Guide