Campus as a Living Lab (CLL) projects aim to advance sustainability on campus through experiential learning that engages staff, students and/or faculty in using the campus as a testbed for addressing sustainability challenges. CLL projects can be part of coursework, student-led initiatives, or faculty-led research. They allow students to engage in applied research, development and demonstration of real-world solutions on campus alongside different subject matter and technical experts.
CECCS is currently soliciting CLL fall 2025 project proposals for ENV461 and ENV1103. Proposal submission deadline is August 8, 2025. See below documents for further details. CLL projects also occur in other courses, and outside of courses across the University.
Campus as Living Lab Goals
Campus-based sustainability research and education that engages staff, students and/or faculty while advancing sustainability practices.
Campus as Living Lab Objectives and Values
Below is a subset of core objectives and values. Not all will be included in every project. Examples of past CLL projects can be found in our project database here.
- Advance place-based multidisciplinary research and experiential education that mobilizes sustainability practices and programming at U of T.
- Foster critical inquiry, analysis and adoption of sustainability practices into the fabric of the University of Toronto: campus planning, operations, academics, administration, and governance.
- Involve responsible use of U of T infrastructure, data and information for collaboration, co-creation, innovation, and demonstration of research on leading-edge solutions (technical, social, and ecological).
- Collaborate with people on and off campus to address campus-based sustainability challenges: researchers, students, faculty, instructors, staff, and potentially external partners.
- Enable co-creation, knowledge transfer and impact on learning and research within and beyond U of T.