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Living Lab

The UCL Living Lab is the opportunity for students and staff to solve UCL’s sustainability challenges through research, teaching, dissertations and projects and to lead the debate on everything from the climate emergency to plastic waste.

Why undertake a Living Lab project?

•    UCL has committed to a number of ambitious sustainability targets: your research, teaching and studies can help us achieve them. 
•    UCL is a leader in sustainability: by solving UCL’s challenges, we can share our knowledge with other institutions and shape the debate on local and global sustainability challenges.
•    Living Lab projects provide real-life learning opportunities for students, and opportunities for research impact for academics.

Principles of a Living Lab Project

  • Projects must be in alignment with UCL's Sustainability Strategy.
  • Data and knowledge acquired must be shared with Sustainable UCL with the aim of making UCL more sustainable.
  • Living Lab projects typically provide the opportunity for learning and community engagement.
  • Projects can involve academics and students from across faculties and departments.

How can I undertake a Living Lab project?

Students

Are you a student considering a sustainability dissertation or other assessed projects as part of your studies?

  • Students can use the campus to test solutions to real-world sustainability challenges.
  • By gathering or analysing data you can support delivery of UCL’s Sustainability goals.
  • You can work directly with operational staff to help identify sustainable improvements.
  • View case studies here.
  • See our dissertation guide here.
  • See our topics list for inspiration.
Teaching staff

Are you teaching staff, looking to embed sustainability into the curriculum?

  • Using real-world challenges can enhance the student experience and provide valuable career skills.
  • See our ‘Embedding Sustainability into the Curriculum’ guide here.
  • See case studies here.
Research staff

Are you developing sustainability research?

  • Research staff can trial or test a research idea or an innovative solution on campus.
  • We encourage interdisciplinary projects that address sustainability through scalable and transferable research here at UCL.
  • See case studies here.
  • Please contact Sustainable UCL to discuss Living Lab research or to utilise our data.

Connect with environment researchers across UCL 

The UCL Environment Domain brings together academics across the University

Data

Sustainable UCL can provide data on the following:

  • Energy data for buildings and departments
  • Some water consumption data for buildings
  • Some travel data for departments
  • Data on behaviour change and engagement with the UCL community on sustainability topics
  • Information on sustainability projects across UCL: we can connect you with other researchers and staff solving UCL’s sustainability challenges
  • Information on sustainable buildings
  • Data on UCL’s supply chains, modern day slavery principles and products bought and re-used across UCL
  • Information on policy