Sustainability Award

The moment is there: LUGO can finally announce the winner of the Sustainability Award 2020!

LUGO, in collaboration with the Plaatselijke Kamer van Verenigingen (PKvV), has looked for associations that use this period of silence to develop plans that will have a major positive effect on the environment and their immediate surroundings when the association life can start fully again to go. The combined knowledge of PKvV and LUGO led to a unanimous winner of the sustainability award this year: V.S.L. Catena. An association where sustainability is one of the priorities, as evidenced by the special working group that focuses on this theme and has already achieved a lot.

A few examples of this are the use of hard plastic cups and glasses, both of which are washed and reused after use. In addition, the cafeteria offers a vegetarian option as standard and half of the time only vegetarian or vegan dishes are cooked. To encourage other mensa’s to offer a vegetarian menu more often, the working group will soon start a course to learn how to cook based on vegetable protein sources, such as tofu and beans. In addition, cooking with seasonal fruit and vegetables is stimulated. The Basil festival, organised annually by the association, offers sustainability-related lectures, sustainable products and food trucks with vegan food.

But there are also new plans for the near future: Catena will soon have a green roof, which provides more insulation and is also good for the bees and other insects in the area. The fact that Catena uses this quieter time to contribute in an innovative way to sustainability and its environment is a very good example in our opinion.

Catena is one of the five major associations in Leiden and thus sets a good example for students and the city. Hopefully, this prize will also stimulate other large associations in Leiden and The Hague to work on sustainability within the association.