The UvA is already doing a great deal, but aims to do more. With this new programme, the university seeks not only to embed sustainability in policy, but to make it truly visible and tangible in our daily work, in lectures, in laboratories, in canteens and across all campuses. ‘Sustainability should not be a separate project, but a natural part of how we study, research and work at the UvA. Across all layers of the organisation – from education and research to our operations – sustainability must become a given,’ says Richard Goldstein, Vice-President of the Executive Board (CvB).

What will the ESG programme do?

In the White Paper on Sustainability (in Dutch), the UvA has defined five main objectives. These range from a 25% reduction in the ecological footprint within five years to fostering a vibrant sustainability community, increasing attention to sustainability across all degree programmes, creating opportunities to develop as a pioneer in sustainability, and conducting research that actively contributes to a sustainable world. The ESG programme will help turn these ambitions into practice.

• Supporting faculties, degree programmes and services in making plans and projects more concrete.
• Better connecting existing initiatives such as Green Offices, Sustainalab, SEVEN and Amsterdam Green Campus, so that they feel more like a cohesive whole.
• Making visible what is already happening and where you, as a student or staff member, can get involved.

What will you notice on campus?

Much of this is already visible, sometimes quite literally around you. We are working on more sustainable buildings and installations, such as the University Library and the new LABQ building with a thermal energy storage (WKO) system. In green spaces such as Anna’s Tuin & Ruigte, students, researchers and local residents collaborate on biodiversity.

In education, new courses have been introduced, such as Health & Sustainability and Climate Psychology. We offer the Bachelor’s programme Science, Technology and Innovation with explicit attention to sustainable innovation, and the Law programme has incorporated a compulsory course on sustainability. In collaboration with Amsterdam Green Campus, the minor Climate-Resilient Crops has been developed.

Community and events

Sustainability at the UvA is not a project run by a small group of people; it is something we shape together through the way we teach, study, conduct research and use our campus. A wide range of activities are already organised across all levels of the university. Examples include:

• Sustainalab in Matrix ONE, where lectures and meet-ups are organised on the circular economy, energy storage and biodiversity.
• Green Offices, clothing swaps, Digital Clean-Up Days and joint clean-up actions tackling litter on campus.
• The climate institute SEVEN in the Law Hub, which connects all seven faculties around climate-related issues.

The new ESG programme will make these types of initiatives more visible and help accelerate new ideas. It will also focus on improved measurability and monitoring, alongside greater emphasis on the objectives with the greatest impact.

Where do we stand now?

Each year, the UvA compiles all data and stories on sustainability into a single integrated report. This helps identify where we are on track and where acceleration is needed. Some current developments include:

• Since 2019, gas consumption has decreased by 44%.
• The new LABQ building will be connected to a thermal energy storage system, minimising its contribution to grid congestion.
• Together with, among others, the Municipality of Amsterdam and Waternet, the UvA is investigating the feasibility of a TEO system, which extracts heat from the canals.

At the same time, there is still work to be done: currently only about one third of canteen offerings are vegetarian, and the ecological footprint of travel has so far been reduced by just over 9%. It is precisely this mix of progress and challenges that underlines the need to raise ambitions further.

Would you like to know more?

Read the Integrated Sustainability Progress Report 2025 (in Dutch) for an overview of last year’s results.

Consult the White Paper on Sustainability (in Dutch) for the five main objectives.