A few weeks ago, this year's LDE Thesis Labs held their final events, including the closing session of Energy-Efficient Horticulture by Circular Practices.
Greenhouse horticulture is a significant sector within the Dutch economy, and one increasingly shaped by questions of circularity and energy use. This lab brought together master students from Leiden University, TU Delft, and Erasmus University to explore how the sector can move toward greater circularity in its use of resources. Currently, less than ten percent of the resources used in the sector come from circular sources, while the sector faces commitments to climate neutrality and full resource circularity by 2040 and 2050 respectively.
Over the past six months, students worked on individual thesis assignments addressing different pieces of that challenge, from reducing reliance on virgin plastics in packaging and growing materials, to rethinking how energy is generated, stored, and shared between greenhouses, to exploring new approaches to managing organic and material waste streams. Alongside their individual research, students took part in the lab's shared programme of masterclasses, site visits, and workshops, engaging directly with growers, technology providers, and policymakers throughout the process.
At their closing event, students presented their findings to stakeholders from across the horticulture sector, sparking discussion on how the ideas developed over the course of the lab might be taken further. As a memorable send-off, they sent attendees home with a playful final product: tomato-shaped stress balls, each carrying a QR code linking to the students' research, a fitting, hands-on symbol for a sector built around the tomato as much as around energy and circularity.
As lab coordinators Elise Blondel and Jan van den Ende reflected:
"Looking back on the past six months, this lab was a real success. A motivated student team organized a well-prepared closing event that sparked insightful exchanges between stakeholders across the sector, and even led to new connections that could grow into future collaborative projects. That, in the end, is the true impact of a lab like this: not just strong theses, but a sector that keeps talking to itself."
See the student's findings here.
Read more about the lab here.
