Campus as a Living Laboratory
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For details about this credit, including the criteria, reporting timeframe, applicability, scoring, and more, please review the full credit language.
The intent of this credit is to recognize substantive work that involves active and experiential student learning and contributes to understanding or advancing sustainability. Examples include, but are not limited to, class projects, thesis projects, term papers, published papers.
Yes. Projects that address multiple topics can be counted in each of those areas. Institutions earn 0.4 points for each area covered, regardless of how many projects there are in each area.
Living lab activities have a course or classroom dimension (i.e., there are opportunities to formally document and assess what students are learning). In contrast, co-curricular activities typically do not have a formal course or classroom component.
Yes. Employment opportunities and internships that contribute toward sustainability can be claimed in this credit as long as there is a clear curricular or learning component reflected in the description.
- College of the Atlantic – Detailed examples and documentation of student and faculty living lab projects.
- Johnson County Community College – Detailed examples of student projects, and great documentation supporting the college’s Campus Living Lab program!
- University of California, Irvine – Good detail and documentation; highlights a Campus as a Living Lab internship program.
- If highlighting student co-curricular activities, employment opportunities and internships, there must be a clear curricular or learning component reflected in the description.
- To count, an initiative must “contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability”, and the description provided should reflect that.
- Resources related to living labs in AASHE’s Campus Sustainability Hub
- The Campus as a Living Laboratory: A Guide for Community Colleges
- A Guide for Applied Sustainability Learning Projects: Advancing sustainability outcomes on campus and in the community
- Partners that can help improve your institution’s performance in Curriculum.