Sustainability

Sustainability@LUC opens the doors for students to explore the natural and social scientific problems and processes that have changed the earth more deeply and extensively in the last decades than in any other period of history. All over the world, natural resources, environmental quality, and biodiversity are being outstripped by the ever-expanding ‘ecological footprint’ of human activities.

In the mean time, human population density continues to increase. Reversing the degradation of ecosystems while meeting increasing demands, requires intense and concerted action of science and society. Sustainable solutions are required in many areas, such as global warming, depleting energy supplies, water and food, and the sustainable management and use of (material as well as ecological) natural resources.
The development of strategies for sustainable growth calls for an integration of scientific insights, methods and solutions from various disciplinary fields. Therefore, Sustainability@LUC includes methodology and theoretical frameworks from across the Natural Sciences, from the sub-disciplines of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and their derivatives such as Environmental Sciences, as well as the Social Sciences.

Sustainability@LUC also takes advantage of the LUC Science & Media Centre, which is collaborating with the 5.3 million euro computer facility of Leiden’s Campus Den Haag known as the ‘Living Lab.’ This virtual laboratory is the perfect facility for the development of digital science and modeling.

Hence, unlike conventional programmes in Environmental or Earth Sciences, on the one hand, or in Public Administration and Governance, on the other, Sustainability@LUC provides a unique combination of these fields to help build knowledge for a better world. Students taking this major will be able to graduate with a BSc or BA, depending on their choice of focus. Graduates will be uniquely well placed to progress to graduate studies in an MSc or MA or to work in IOs, NGOs and other organizations focused on sustainability and development.