Steps to completing a Living Lab project
Why register your project with us?
We can match students with projects and projects with students.
For students, we can connect you to resources and help champion your work. Sustainability Living Lab projects benefit from our support in accessing campus data, in connecting with campus stakeholders, and in communicating project outcomes to both a broader audience and to relevant decision-makers. In addition, the Sustainability Office aims to support the continuation of work on projects with good feasibility and high impact potential. This can help your project work to reach beyond the classroom and make a real difference.
For campus partners, we can find student groups to develop innovative solutions, perform meaningful analysis, generate quality research, and provide other services that can advance your projects and improve the sustainability of your operations.
Project criteria
For faculty and graduate student projects, please contact the Sustainability Living Lab Coordinator directly.
For students, the ideal projects will meet the following criteria:
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Are related to a sustainability challenge on campus and align with campus sustainability priorities
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Related to goals of the Shifit: Neutral climate action plan or the Environmental Sustainability
Strategy and/or
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Related to one or more of the environmentally-focused Sustainable Development Goals (6, 7, 11,12-15)
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Have an instructor or faculty mentor/supervisor - we can help connect you
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Are feasible with the given resources – talk to us if you are unsure
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Have the potential to provide meaningful outcomes –if you are inspired, we probably will be too
Looking for inspiration? Check out the database of project ideas.
Accessing data and engaging stakeholders
Public data related to sustainability can be accessed from the Sustainability website. Public data is also available from the Ecology Lab. In addition, the Sustainability Office is well placed to request and access further data from a variety of sources on campus. For example, the Sustainability Office can access a wide range of campus operational data related to energy, waste, procurement, parking, and other processes. Please note that not all data is in a form that can be shared, some data requires signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement, and most buildings on campus do not have separate metering for energy.
The Sustainability Office can also arrange for and facilitate engagements with stakeholders on campus. Please contact the Sustainability Living Lab Coordinator to request assistance with campus stakeholder engagement or to access data that is not publicly available.
Funding opportunities
Sustainable Living Lab projects may qualify or funding from the Sustainability Action Fund.
Sharing living lab projects
Are you already working on a project that you think could advance sustainability on campus? We encourage you to reach out to the Sustainability Living Lab Coordinator who can help you to access campus data, make connections to campus stakeholders, promote your project and even profile it on our website for everyone to see (great for resumes!).