We have created an active tour of Amsterdam focusing on sustainability. Moreover, Lex and the City has been integrating this important theme more and more into its existing private tours of unusual Amsterdam.
Below, you’ll find our first route and sustainable urban development bike tour, along with 28 sustainable initiatives and locations across Amsterdam. We have also added a walking version, with the climate-resilient city in mind. When it comes to sustainability, tour development never stands still.
This themed sustainability tour takes place in two Amsterdam areas that Lex and the City specialises in: the Eastern Islands and the Eastern Docklands. If you have specific interests, we are happy to tailor the experience. It is also a compact (L)experience, thanks to the short sustainability-themed visits.
Duurzame privé tour in Amsterdam (= comparable page in our native language, Dutch) | ⇒ Nous parlons aussi français. | Wir sprechen auch Deutsch.
For us, the first areas in Amsterdam to explore for attractive and inspiring sustainable hidden gems are Amsterdam East and Amsterdam North. That process often starts with customers asking us for tailor-made sustainability tours. Amsterdam is widely regarded as an eco-friendly city with a leading international role in sustainability.
And sustainability is embedded in everything we do at Lex and the City.
Sustainable bike tour Amsterdam: Route and Highlights
Each tour is shaped by the moment — depending on the availability of local people and organisations, opening hours, the season, holidays, new companies, and ongoing developments and trends in sustainability. A few days before your sustainable group Lexperience, we finalise the details. (What can be confirmed in advance, are the logistics and structure.)
The sustainable bike tour includes two or three compact visits to movers and shakers in the field of sustainability and/or inspiring eco-projects. It is a 3-hour-and-15-minute rolling and walking exploration of sustainable urban development, centred around the eco-highlights of the Marineterrein and extending into the Eastern Docklands, the Eastern Islands and the Czaar Peter Quarter.
A sustainable urban walking experience of around 4 km is also possible, taking place on and around the Marineterrein and the Maritime Museum. If there’s time left, we’ll take you to its historic maritime neighbour, called Oosterdok.)
Along the way, we visit eco-minded organisations and pass by several other sustainable spots, sharing their stories as we go. Beneath the photo with the biking ladies, you’ll find the locations and sights that may be part of your sustainable Amsterdam tour: ⇓
- Trendy and conscious Czaar Peterstraat. Like the Cacao museum. Their cacao tributes to strengthening the local ecosystem. (Instead of the opposite, which is more the known rule.)
- Energy-neutral houseboat on the KNSM island.
- The circular crane hotel. Formerly a crane, now a hotel, next to Loods 6 on the KNSM island, in the Eastern Docklands.
- The Jakarta Hotel : the green, bicycle-friendly and modern hotel that is also locally connected to this area. The dedicated hotel team on Java Island has been surprising several of our conscious private groups already with a cool Eco visit.
- Impact Hub: A place in the recently created CRCL park, where entrepreneurs, researchers, public organisations and investors work together on solutions for the challenges cities face today, from climate adaptation to circular business models.
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Sustainable tour – Project Flex Citizen – Marineterrein in Amsterdam – June 2026 -
Just click for this green review. Biotope Dijkspark Mediamatic. With their remarkable “Pure Gold” experiment. They also fully contribute to the circular economy. Perhaps Mediamatic can also offer a sustainable vegan lunch. (on request) By the way, a biotope is a kind of city quarter for plants and animals.
- A visit possibly to the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions: AMS Institute.
- Smart roof 2.0; also on the Marine site. One of the Living lab projects on this sustainability tour. That great view from the roof is a refreshing bonus you’d get. It is an example of the rooftop guiding we have introduced in 2026. (However you need to do a bit of climbing on the narrow stairs as well. ;) )
- Living Lab with its cool self-driving Roboat. Yes, that robot boat, Dutch pride; even to be seen at river Seine now already in Paris! Marineterrein is part of the Eastern Islands; one of the Lex and the City touring specialities in Amsterdam.
- Respyre. Concrete is a commonly used building material in cities that retains a lot of heat. To counteract this effect, a bio receptive concrete variant is being tested at Marineterrein Amsterdam. Plants can attach themselves to this concrete.
Are we only talking about sustainability? No — we also share the history and fascinating stories of the Eastern Docklands and the Eastern Islands.
As the sustainable development tour is taking place in upcoming, trendy neighborhoods, it is not as crowded as in the town center of Amsterdam. (Most of the time not at all, actually.)
We start in Czaar Peterstraat, at least when you need to rent a bike first. The proposed bike track
The durable walking tour takes place on the Marineterrein and around it.
Availability of the Sustainability in Amsterdam Bike Tour
A question we often receive:
Hello, do you operate the eco-tour in the coming days? Is it possible to join?
Answer: this is a private tour. A short-notice private eco-tour without confirmed visits is possible most of the time.
If visits are included, the tour follows a standard programme and requires around two weeks of preparation.
Even without visits, the tour remains a meaningful and interesting experience.
Pricing and terms for this private, sustainable bike tour of Amsterdam
Here a bike stop with hotel tour guide Hidde from Jakarta Hotel on Java Island in the Eastern Docklands.
For every group, we carefully prepare two or three short eco-visits. Think of them as three meaningful triggers: small, concrete encounters that make sustainability in Amsterdam tangible. These visits are offered exclusively as part of this specific sustainable tour.
Until June 2025, these eco-visits were included at no additional cost. This period allowed us to fine-tune the concept and ensure that the experience truly reflects our sustainability values.
From 15 June 2025 onwards, an additional fee of €100 (including Dutch VAT) applies to this sustainability tour. This supplement is charged per group.
This amount is added on top of the standard Lex and the City rate for private tours and leisure experiences in Amsterdam:
Lex and the City standard rates and general conditions for private tours and other bespoke leisure experiences in Amsterdam.
By the way, in the course of 2026, it will be possible to pay the Amsterdam sustainability local guide in multiple ways directly via his phone.
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We would like to show you a review of the sustainable tour in Amsterdam. (July 2025)
An example of a tailor-made Amsterdam tour, highlighting climate and circularity challenges (2025)
With pleasure and dedication, we guide a sustainable tour of Amsterdam for you and your group of 18 students studying eco-design, together with 2 professors.
Foot-biking, perhaps?
The tailor-made quotation is based on your request:
- Visit to Amsterdam North, including De Ceuvel and its former shipyard. Tailor-made sustainable bike tour in English (or French), with no additional costs.
- Start location: the windmill in Amsterdam East, or the bike rental just around the corner. The tour ends at De Ceuvel, including a short guided visit of the site.
- From there, the route continues as part of a tailor-made sustainable tour through Amsterdam East and Central East, including Mediamatic, before crossing into Amsterdam North (De Ceuvel and surroundings).
- The sustainable bike tour starts at 09:00 and finishes at 12:30 (3.5 hours).
For Lex and the City, it is essential that students genuinely feel the experience is worthwhile. Why do we say this? Because we often receive requests from tutors who assume something will be interesting for their students. For us, that is not enough — the interest needs to come from within.
Sustainable tour development in Amsterdam: a so-called Lexperiment
Our latest ambition for the summer of 2026:
A new private bike tour exploring sustainability in Amsterdam, focusing on climate strategies, the energy transition and citizen involvement. The route follows Amsterdam’s waterfront redevelopment from the Eastern Docklands to the Nieuwe Houthaven, highlighting how the city continues to reinvent itself along the IJ River.
From a trading city built on water to a city experimenting with new ways of living with water, climate change and limited urban space.
Our aim is to show visitors from around the world that Amsterdam is far more than a museum city. It is a city that is constantly redesigning itself.
Examples of sustainability along the IJ River:
- Eastern Islands: Oostenburg shows that sustainability is not only about solar panels or wind turbines. It is also about giving former industrial areas a new future, preserving historic buildings where possible, and creating neighbourhoods where people can live, work and travel more sustainably.
- Eastern Islands, Kattenburg: Marineterrein – Bio-based construction, the Innovation Pavilion and the Living Lab.
- Eastern Docklands – Citizen involvement through neighbourhood energy initiatives and smart urban development.
- Oosterdok – How water management has shaped Amsterdam’s history, identity and future. Future? Yes indeed, climate change and water management are closely linked. “Amsterdam has never fought against water. It has learned to manage it.”
- Nieuwe Houthaven – A former timber harbour transformed into a climate-resilient residential district. Houthaven’s most striking sustainable feature is its acoustic, angled upper facades. Engineered to reflect sound upward and reduce urban noise pollution , these calculated slopes solve an environmental challenge while cleverly honoring Amsterdam’s historic sloped-roof tradition.
28 green & conscious locations shaping sustainable and unusual tours in Amsterdam
This has been the blog post we created before we started the so-called “Sustainable Lexperience”.
Corporate sustainable and active experience in Amsterdam: foot-biking. Here the Lex and the City group in front of the Amstel Hotel.
This location is not part of the sustainable tour on this page. It is shown to illustrate foot-biking as a low-impact activity.
- Eco-friendly floating community: Schoonschip (check the first Instagram post below ⇓)
- De Kas (Watergraafsmeer)
- Valley (Zuidas): a striking building that produces more energy than it consumes (opened November 2021)
QO Hotel→ Ruby Emma Hotel (previous rooftop greenhouse concept; now redefined sustainable hotel approach)- Jakarta Hotel (energy neutral concept). More in this eco article in The Independent
- Biotoop Mediamatic (Dijkspark)
- De Ceuvel (Amsterdam North), one of the hidden treasures of the city
- Noorderlicht (NDSM wharf)
Eastern Docklands in transition – exhibition (Summer 2025, BAC Amsterdam)
- Marineterrein: innovation in sustainability (Rainproof 2.0, Roboat, Food projects). The AMS Institute plays a central role here
- Bajeskwartier (Amsterdam East): redevelopment of a former prison into a 100% energy-neutral district with green roofs
- Science Park
- Four Elements Hotel (IJburg): example of an eco-oriented hotel in Amsterdam East
- Friday Night Skate Amsterdam (volunteer involvement since 1998)
- Noorderpark: former gas station sites reused for community purposes
- HAUT: eco-friendly wooden tower in Amstelkwartier
- Impact Hub Amsterdam
- Eastern Docklands energy monitoring project: local energy use and production insights.
By Resourcefully - Green city parks such as Oosterpark and Noorderpark – the “lungs” of the city
- Czaar Peterstraat: Instock (food waste reduction initiative)
- Het Faire Oosten (Oostpoort): fair fashion and alternatives to fast fashion
- Worm hotel (Barcelona Square), initiated by Rudy Klaassen: community composting system
- Oyster mushroom project (Eastern Docklands)
- Oost-Indisch Groen community garden
- Sustainable houseboats (KNSM Island, Levant harbor)
- NoordOogst: urban agriculture cooperative in Amsterdam North
Biking, foot-biking and inline skating in the city are sustainable ways of exploring Amsterdam
We also act in a sustainable way by offering active tours that rely on human energy: experiences (Lexperiences) in the city by bike, inline skates, foot-bike (scooter), or walking tours.
During periods of lower demand, such as the early phase of the Covid period, we also shifted into a green, sporty courier service on wheels.
Call Lex at +31 6 55 33 77 26 for a customized bike tour, or continue reading what Lex and the City is all about.
We are intentionally a bit unusual.
The full green bike tour needs to be booked a few weeks in advance, as we prepare carefully, including the selection of visits.
Last-minute requests are sometimes possible, but may include fewer stops.
When is the best time for an ecological biking tour in Amsterdam?
Not everyone is equally comfortable cycling in a city. Basic cycling skills are therefore required.
Saturday mornings are preferred. Saturday afternoons are the busiest time of the week and less suitable.
Midweek, starting around 14:00, works well as well. Rush hour begins around 16:00, so earlier starts are usually more comfortable and help avoid delays or crowded conditions.
Sunday is generally the most relaxed day for a private sustainability bike tour, although some locations may be closed.
Sustainable city villas in Amsterdam East, near the future Bajeskwartier
Amsterdam was voted the second-best city in the world in 2021, partly because of its sustainable and green character.
You can also visit the main page for private tours in Amsterdam for more options.
Cheers,
Lex