Campus as a Living Lab

Campus as a Living Lab initiative helps turn Northeastern’s campuses into real-world classrooms for testing sustainability ideas and hands-on learning. These projects are led by students or faculty, supported by the Sustainability Innovation Incubator, and help advance the University’s goals in sustainability innovation in education and research. 

Types of

Projects

Campus as a Living Lab projects take many forms. They can be:

 

  • Student-led initiatives or competitions 
  • Teaching and Coursework (individual or group)
  • Student capstones and independent projects
  • Applied research or data analysis
  • Co-curricular projects

What are Living lab projects?

Living lab projects have several elements in common :

    • They are research projects that take advantage of the many resources on our campuses (buildings, landscape, data, professional expertise) to test new ideas or approaches that have the potential for positive sustainability outcomes.
    • They span the intersection of innovation and sustainability.  Typically Living Lab projects contain an element of discovery.
    • They include educational components so that all members of the campus community can learn and be inspired.

How to Get Involved

Whether you already have an idea for an on-campus intervention or just want to explore options , we invite you to reach out so we can discuss how to move forward. Please send a note to sustainabilityincubator@northeastern.edu. If you are on the Oakland campus, please reach out to OaklandSustainability@northeastern.edu.

If you are a staff or faculty and are looking for funding for a project or initiative, check out the Sustainability Grant Program. 

Explore Existing and Past Projects

Campus Research

  • Reflective paints for energy efficiency (Zheng Yi, Nate LaCompte)
  • AI for Smart Buildings (Auroop Ganguly, August Posch)
  • The Healthier Air and People: Intelligent Solutions to Urban Pollution for Equity and Resilience (iSUPER) (Yang Zhang, Amy Meuller)

Student Initiatives

  • GRC (Global Research and Consulting Group), “Understanding the Intersection of Sustainability and AI” report on evaluating AI resources for campus decarbonization goals. 

  • Green Roofs Rangers, “Developing a demonstration green roof for education and research,” utilizing a green roof on the tunnel next to Mugar Hall. 

  • Husky Heat Harvesters, submission to Department of Energy competition using the Centennial Quad and surrounding buildings as the design basis for a proposal to develop a comprehensive geothermal district heating and cooling system (awarded first place). 

  • SustainaBite, winning submission in the 2025 Sustainability Innovation Week, with an analysis of food waste in campus food and beverage establishments and recommendations for improvement. 

  • Sustainability Coursework Dashboard, developed by Rohan Biju and Kevin Le (Spring 2025 Co-ops) to organize and visualize coursework by content, keywords, and Sustainable Developoment Goals

Coursework and Capstone Projects

  • Lifecycle Assessment of Materials, Products, and Infrastructure, College of Engineering

  • Creating a marketing campaign for the Plastics Reduction Campaign, D’Amore-McKim School of Business

  • Sustainability Policies Across Global Network Locations, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs

  • Installation of weather stations on Oakland campus to track air quality and other weather indicators, College of Arts, Media, and Design

  • Recommendations for the landscape design of several sites along Lake Aliso, College of Engineering

  • Student designed Reuse App to increase donation of items