Our mission is to advance UC Berkeley’s climate action goals through a 'campus as a living laboratory' lens, promoting deep cross-collaboration between researchers, students, staff, and other stakeholders on campus and in the community.
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.
Project Pillars:
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Energy and decarbonization strategies
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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
Climate Justice is integral to our Living Lab Program
In alignment with UC Berkeley’s core mission of research and public service, the Living Lab Pilot Program embraces the intersectionality of sustainability and Environmental Justice. In partnership with the Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC), the Living Lab Program will develop comprehensive, justice-centered approaches to decarbonization, ensuring that our transition to a fossil-free campus dismantles social disparities and fosters a resilient environment for all students, faculty, and staff.