Algae are seen as a high-value feedstock in various industries, such as biodegradable materials, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and protein-rich nutrition. This project aims to increase yields and reduce costs, open new circular solutions, and understand and cater to consumer needs to accelerate the implementation of algae in the circular economy. The technology's economic and environmental impact is significant, with an extra 10 to 30% yield adding 100,000 to 300,000 euros per hectare per year, saving electricity and capturing CO2. 

The interdisciplinary team of researchers working on this project, is coming from the faculties of Science, Economics and Business, and Social and Behavioural Sciences. 

The project involves six external parties that span the entire value chain, including Chemtrix and Renolit for nanocrystal foil production, and four algae growers - AlgaSpring, Photanol, A4F, and Algae Holland. They span different climate zones and markets (A4F is from Portugal), which allows for exploration of diverse business cases. Besides facilitating testing, the partners will provide crucial contact and insights into market segments. 

Project team:

• Prof. Dr. P. Schall (FNWI)
• Prof. Dr. J. Huisman (FNWI)
• Prof. Dr. A. Kourula (FEB)
• Dr. Marijn Meijers (FMG)
• Prof. Dr. Edith Smit (FMG)

After the success of last year's Sustainable Prosperity Seed Grant project META, the team successfully applied to grow into a midsize project. The new and larger research project SISTEM-NL builds on the previous one in aiming to tackle microplastic pollution caused by microfibers released by washing textiles. It does this by estimating microfiber emissions in the Netherlands and testing the effectiveness of Citizen Science in addressing microplastic pollution. The study also aims to enhance public awareness and engagement, which is crucial in addressing microplastic pollution, by providing knowledge and communication tools. 

The interdisciplinary team consists of researchers from the Faculty of Science (Environmental Risk and Environmental Chemistry) and the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (Social Psychology and Persuasive Communication). 

The research is supported by private actors such as textile R&D developers (Avantium), textile production industry (Bell Rain), major suppliers (Groenendijk bedrijfskleding, MG Holland BV), and clothing retailers (Studio Anneloes). A special redesigned filter is provided by PlanetCare. Semi-public and public sector partners include Wetenschapsknooppunten, Plastic Soup Foundation, Amsterdam Green Campus, PULSAQUA, Dutch Sustainable Fashion Week, and Hogeschool InHolland. 

Project team:

• Dr. Z.M.C. van Berlo (FMG)
• Dr. C. Brick (FMG)
• Dr. L. Jacobs (FNWI)
• Dr. A. Praetorius (FNWI)

The project addresses sustainable development within the Port of Amsterdam (PoA). The different disciplines involved in this project will co-develop an innovative and interdisciplinary methodology for assessing the sustainability of port waterways. It considers the socio-economic and ecological significance of the PoA, and Its focal point underlines the central role cities play in preserving planetary boundaries.

The project's key research questions aim to uncover the sustainability understandings of different actors in the PoA, to identify conflicts and synergies among these perspectives, and determine ways to realize these synergies. 

Anticipated outputs of the project encompass a PoA waterways database, academic publications, and an integrated understanding of PoA's social, ecological, and technical systems elements (SETS). 

Project team:

• dr. Jannes Willems
• dr. Elisabeth Krueger
• prof. dr. Maria Kaika
• dr. Mark van der Veen
• dr. Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh
• prof. dr. Annemarie van Wezel

Activists, NGOs, and broader social movements mobilize to enact economic change by supporting market-based solutions to social and environmental issues, such as renewable energy, fair trade, green transportation, ethical fashion, and meat alternatives. What are the strategies that make activists more or less successful in supporting sustainable markets? And in which contexts are they likely to succeed? A pilot study will be conducted to understand the impact of civic organizations on the energy transition over the past four decades across European countries.

Overall project goal: The broader aim is to develop an interdisciplinary project on how activist mobilization shapes sustainable markets. We envision a comparative perspective to examine the renewable energy market across all European Union countries, coupling longitudinal industry data with historical country case analyses supported by newspaper and NGO (digital) archives. The project will identify (i) how activists’ strategies to oppose brown energy versus promote green energy affect the transition to more sustainable energy; (ii) how the social, political, cultural, and industry context strengthens or hampers the influence of activists.

Project team:

• Dr. Panikos Georgallis, Associate Professor of Strategy (FEB)
• Prof. Peter van Dam, Professor of Dutch History (FGW)

Humans and nature have a long history of interconnections, and humans have modified forests, including tropical rainforests, for over 12,000 years. Human action can affect biodiversity patterns and forest functionality (including global carbon cycling) as much on timescales of 100s of years in tropical forests. For example, Amazonian rainforests account for 17 of all terrestrial carbon cycling in Earth’s biosphere. Natural environments in tropical forests also play a large role in shaping people and their social relations, imaginaries, and political empowerment struggles.

Agroforestry systems in Amazonian rainforests are key examples of mutual human-environment interconnections. They cover a spectra of forest-based production systems with different levels of management intensities, from extraction of usable forest products, to moderated management of multi-crop plantation of forest tree species, and forest species enrichment, such as cacao (Theobroma cacao) and açai palm (Euterpe oleracea). How these varying forms of agroforestry affect tropical forest biodiversity and functionality, however, remains unclear.

We propose to integrate remote sensing analysis to classify agroforestry systems and assess aspects of forest functionality. We are going to use with ground-based ecological and sociological data using one agroforest case-study site in the Brazilian Amazon to address the following research questions:

1. To what degree can the three types of agroforestry systems (anthropogenic forests) be identified, differentiated, and categorized using remote sensing analysis?
2. Based on previous studies and ground-based qualitative data, which socioecological functions can be associated with different types of anthropogenic forests?

Project team:

• Dr. Crystal McMichael (FNWI)
• Dr. Fábio de Castro (FGW)

The global economy’s current organization of supply chains poses environmental challenges and is vulnerable to environmental change. New legislation is holding firms responsible for environmental harm, but little is known about the firms’ adjustments to supply chains. 

This project reveals the potential of legislation around sustainable supply chains and aims to project into the future how supply chains may change as a result of law and a range of other factors. The findings may prove valuable to businesses, civil society, and governments who are looking to develop strategies and regulatory instruments for sustainable supply chains. 

The project combines expertise from Law, Political Economy, and Computational Science to develop a new methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of sustainable supply chain regulations in reducing environmental risks.

Project team:

• Luc Fransen (FMG)
• Klaas Eller (FdR)
• Mike Lees (FNWI)
• Diliara Valeeva (FMG)

Energy Labels is an ongoing UvA project at the Science Faculty that aims to quantify the energy consumption of digital services in real-time. This project adds to that with an interdisciplinary approach that explores the real-world usage and enforcement of the outcomes of the Energy Labels project. By doing that it aims to promote a reduction in the ecological footprint of digital services. 

The interdisciplinary team exists of researchers from the faculties of Law, Economics and Business, and Science. They will work on designing, implementing, and standardising the energy labels. By exploring how the Energy Labels tool can be used to induce a real-world reduction in carbon footprint, the project intends to run a pilot experiment to nudge users towards energy-saving behaviour. 

This project looks at the environmental impact of digital services in the Netherlands, where data centres consume three times more energy than the national railway company. Through behavioural interventions, law, and policy changes, the project aims to achieve significant savings in CO2 emissions at a national and potentially international level.

Project team:

• Dr. Anuj Pathania (FNWI)
• Dr. Giorgia Romagnoli (FEB)
• Dr. Candida Leone (FdR)

Collective ownership in the form of Community Land Trust (CLT) has the potential to become a tool for the city of Amsterdam to improve the welfare of its residents in a sustainable way. CLT is an alternative vision of private land ownership. It is a non-profit, democratic and community-led organisation that typically develops and manages housing for disadvantaged members of society. 

This project aims to develop the necessary interdisciplinary understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of CLTs. The project takes place in collaboration with a passionate community of local CLT change agents. 

• Participating faculties: FdR, FMG, FGw and FNWI 

• Contact person: Mendel Giezen

Washing behaviour is often overlooked as part of the ecological footprint of textiles. Indeed, washing textiles causes the release of synthetic microfibres that end up in the environment in the form of microplastics.  

This project will develop new, human-centred research methods to collect data on household emissions. The overarching goal of this project is to investigate how local behavioural changes can help reduce global pollution problems. In doing so, the team investigates how ‘citizen science’ leads to learning and engagement, and thus can encourage environmentally friendly behaviour. 

• Participating faculties: FNWI, FMG and FEB 
• Contact person: Lies Jacobs 

Listen more about the project (NPO Radio 1, February 2023, in Dutch)
Read more about the project (SPUI Magazine, April 2023, in Dutch)

Healthcare has a significant environmental footprint. Assessing the environmental impact of healthcare processes is a crucial step in enabling a transition to sustainable prosperity, both within Amsterdam and internationally.  

Within this project, several Amsterdam UMC intersectoral care pathways with high volume and potentially high environmental impact will be identified. Then, one care path will be mapped in detail (with a causal loop diagram), its carbon footprint will be quantified through a Life Cycle Assessment, and an Action Scales Model will be used to identify key levers for lasting change. 

• Participating faculties: UMC, FMG and FEB 
• Contact person: Niek Sperna Weiland