Campus as a Living Lab
Campus as a Living Lab engages students, staff, and faculty in utilizing campus (e.g.,
infrastructure, policies, and operations) for applied learning, research, and projects in
sustainability. Through partnership between staff and faculty or students, the Living Lab program
encourages innovative problem-solving for campus-based challenges and research in
sustainability.
Multiple “living lab” projects - which involve faculty, staff, and students in a collaborative
venture that helps solve a problem, answer a question, or meet a University sustainability goal –
happen every year. Research into best practices in electronic waste management, audits on
recycling rates, and analysis of our campus food system have all led to ideas to improve campus
practices
Types of Living Lab Projects
-
Match Making Projects
The target approach for living lab projects involves the Office for Sustainability staff pairing
specific faculty working on certain issues with certain challenges. -
Faculty-Driven Projects
Many faculty across the campus utilize the campus as a living laboratory for sustainability in
their teaching and research. Many of these applied Campus as a Living Lab projects also support
the requirements of AASHE’s STARS Report. More information on some of these projects can
be found here. -
Emerging and New Ideas
Interested in submitting an idea for a living lab project on campus? Email Daniel Hart at dhart@richmond.edu.
Requirements for Living Lab Projects
Partnership
The proposal must have an academic and operational (or administrative) partnership.
Place-Based
The scope of the project must take place on campus.
Learning Outcomes
The learning outcomes of the project must be clearly stated.
Measurable Outcomes
Measurable outcomes should be either quantitative or qualitative in relation to campus improvement, social change, or academic inquiry.
Findings
The findings of the project should be produced as an executive summary, report, paper, video, storyboard, poster, or graphic visualization.
Implementation
Living lab projects can be conceptual or theoretical but priority is given to implementable projects.
Campus Examples
Below are a few examples that have been implemented over the past few years. Look at these living lab projects to get a better idea of how to orient your proposal.
-
ENVR 300 - The Paradox of the Cultivated Wild (2020-2021)
As a part of the "Paint-Out Pollution" initiative, stencils of the creatures impacted by runoff pollution are spray painted on campus sidewalks near storm drains. The project was initiated by students aiming to engage the campus community in spreading community awareness for vulnerable species in the watershed in the Spring of 2021. The stencils are part of a program from the James River Association. (Carrie Wu, FA20-SP21)
-
GEOG 210 - Planet Earth: People and Place
The class has a module on green construction and features, visiting LEED buildings on campus. That is followed by sustainable urban design mock-ups that cover specific sustainable features, such as reduced, circulating, and clean flows of materials, place for nature, connected patterns of, creative place-making, and well-being.
-
GEOG/ENVR/BIOL 315 - Landscape Ecology
On the southern part of campus in the Eco-Corridor are the concrete remains of a historic wastewater treatment facility. According to the UR Collegian’s Westham Project, the plant was built in the early 1900s after UR moved its campus to the current location. In the 1930s, the city ran water and sewer lines to campus, and the treatment plant was closed. The class reviewed the function of the facility, as well as the archaeological survey that included a nearby earthen dam constructed in the early 1800s. (Lookingbill, FA20)
-
AMST 381/THTR 249 - Public Transportation in the Time of Two Pandemics
The importance of public transportation is the central focus of a new project led by American Studies professor Laura Browder and theater professor Patricia Herrera. Browder and Herrera taught “Public Transportation in the Time of Two Pandemics: A Documentary Project," a course focusing on the importance of public transportation in Richmond. The project also examined the families of the GRTC Transit System and the effect of both COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement on GRTC. Working with students, they created an archive and a digital exhibition. Browder and Herrera are also partnering with Alexandra Byrum, UR’s director of communications and community relations for equity and community, on a permanent exhibition, which will be on display at the headquarters of GRTC. (Browder and Herrera, FA21)
-
CLSC 220 - Introduction to Archaeology
How can we read the past? What can we learn about people and societies, past and present, from their material remains? This course provides an introduction to archaeological method and theory, with special focus on the archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean basin, the Richmond area, and our own campus. We will study artifacts excavated near Maryland Hall that are probably associated with an early 20th-century amusement park and consider how the park contributed to the erasure of the memory of slavery on this land. Final projects will explore how further archaeological research could shed new light on the lives of the people who were enslaved here and on neighboring African American communities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Lizzie Baughan, FA20)
-
MKT 329 - Sustainable Marketing
At the University of Richmond, sustainability means creating environmental, social, and economic conditions that foster health and well-being for people and the natural world in this generation and generations to come. There are several programs at the University of Richmond that help fulfill this sustainability-related mission. Students enrolled in Marketing Sustainability will be asked to help develop a solution that creates greater student awareness, engagement, and participation in the Rethink Waste Program. For this project, students work in teams composed of four members. The main deliverable for this project is a written description and presentation of your solution specifically addressing how and to what extent your solution will increase student awareness, engagement, and participation.