The Living Lab will create a thriving ecosystem of climate-focused projects that use campus as a testbed for research and support experiential education opportunities for students.
As the number one public university in the country, UC Berkeley has long been a testbed for campus-facing research and experiential learning projects. Despite this successful history, however, such projects have often been ad-hoc, without central programmatic infrastructure to support their continuation or to connect them to higher-level campus priorities. The Living Lab Program Pilot will seek to address these issues by building a formalized, strategic program focused on achieving UC Berkeley’s fossil-free goals, particularly the Berkeley Clean Energy Campus (BCEC) transition and the Climate Action Plan.
The Living Lab Program will break down institutional siloes by facilitating connections between faculty and operational staff; developing or supporting project calls that serve both campus and researchers’ priorities; actively engaging and managing student fellows and participants; and communicating widely about the program to build buy-in and generate a consistent flow of projects in future years.
UC Berkeley Campus Sustainability Plan and the Living Lab:
The Living Lab Program serves as the vital bridge between the aspirational targets of the Climate Sustainability Plan (CSP) and the tangible implementation required to achieve them.
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Energy and decarbonization
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Transportation
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Food Systems
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Waste and Circular Economy
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Climate Resilience and Risk
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Built Environment
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Bio Diversity