Guest blog from student William Capps who shares outcomes from his Master of Research in Sustainable Futures thesis.
As a university community seeking to advance sustainability, we have an opportunity to further integrate sustainability learning across our campus operations and infrastructure. ‘Campus Living Labs’ (CLLs) offer an innovative model – leveraging the campus as a testbed to conduct participatory sustainability research and teaching. I recently explored academic perspectives on CLLs for my thesis, hoping to clarify how they are conceived and point to pathways for adoption.
What is a Campus Living Lab? A space for collaborative sustainability learning. Project-based. Rooted in the university campus. Bridging research, operations, and teaching. Involving students as change agents. Applying multiple knowledge perspectives. Inclusive participation at the core. With stakeholders jointly defining progress indicators.
Why are models like this needed?
- They offer real potential for creating countercultures, pushing sustainability boundaries in our universities.
- An opportunity is presented to democratise the university campus for sustainability, which could help bring progress to the kind of philosophical overhaul in Higher Education long overdue.
- It’s not like we only just invented a model for participatory engagement within and for our universities. But what a model like the Campus Living Lab does is it makes engagements more visible; it allows initiatives/projects to connect with each other, and again start talking about their differences.
- Non-linear and rapidly shifting external realities will increasingly be the context for our institutions, and Campus Living Labs offer a blueprint to rehearse dealing with uncertainty.
Where are they active?
Campus Living Labs already guide teaching, research and decisions at many universities. Take for example the repository of hundreds of projects at the University of Toronto. The long standing University Living Lab at the University of Manchester. The EAUC sustainability exchange is a great starting place to find UK-specific examples of Campus Living Lab initiatives.
There is considerable diversity in their implementation. And they tend to fit the strategic priorities at respective institutions. Some are credited. Others are voluntary or ‘extra’. Some initiatives label themselves explicitly as a Living Lab e.g., Biodiversity Living Lab at the University of Leeds, while others do not, e.g., ‘Students as Change Agents’ at the University of Edinburgh.
What does this mean for sustainability?
It means a safe space to probe alternative paradigms for Higher Education at the margins. It’s no catch-all. And it’s clear the model should never represent a totality, or single way of doing things. Yet, if the aim is to move the university in a more sustainable direction, it could be a stepping stone that illuminates the details of what our institutions need to courageously grapple with. For example, the compatibility of epistemes with sustainability.
There are emergent opportunities and benefits to be had when space is carved out at the margins! Models like Campus Living Labs are not easy processes of course. They require a rupture with our instrumentalised ways of approaching teaching and learning. But if we’re going to address the wicked problems we face, we need these kinds of challenging processes and engagements to give us a chance of doing that.
What does this mean for academics?
This is what my project considered. An exploration of the gap between what is generally perceived as a useful concept and the realities of academia. How do academics within our current flawed institutions grapple with notions of pushing the sustainability boundaries? How may academics navigate such rigid structures? What would it take to get from X to Y?
The aim was to clarify and point to pathways for successful adoption. Themes underscored “boundedness”, “participation” and “learning” as recurring anchors. And it was found that even when perceiving potential benefits, academics face ingrained barriers, and this seemed to hinge on two consistent strands:
- Capacity building
- Time
- Resource
- Framing
- Incentive structures
- Institutional priorities
While such models may or may not prove to be long-term solutions, analysing their tensions hints at needed reforms.
Top tips for academics interested in involvement:
- Clarify how you want to see the future of learning align with sustainability. Diverse interpretations exist, so set the vision accordingly regarding desired outcomes and nature of involvement.
- Think of what engaging with the university campus would mean to you, your teaching/research philosophy, and your discipline. How can existing capacities present in the university campus meet this?
- Understand your opportunities and your limitations. Whether it relates to timetables, funding or disciplinary synergies/divides. Acknowledging this may be important for setting expectations.
- If possible, seek to embed opportunities for critical questioning and deliberation. Unsettling assumptions and inclusive dialogues foster the deeper learning sustainable futures demand. See Tristan McCowan’s (2023) “The climate crisis as a driver for pedagogical renewal in higher education” on why these pedagogical foundations are important when wholeheartedly engaging with issues such as climate.
Is anything happening at Bristol Uni?
The Sustainable Science and Green Labs team is currently in the process of planning a Campus Living Lab. It aims to provide an inclusive space/framework for professional staff, academics, and students to collaboratively engage with campus-based sustainability initiatives. We hope it will act as an engine for meaningful change.
If you have any questions about this or if you are interested in getting involved, please reach out to Anna Lewis our sustainable science manager at anna.lewis@bristol.ac.uk or myself, one of the current Green Labs officers william.capps@bristol.ac.uk
Further information:
Transforming Universities into Living Labs – GW4
Living Labs: Opportunities, Benefits and Challenges – EAUC
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