campuses as living laboratories of sustainability

Living Labs

BCIT’s campuses as Living Labs of sustainability initiative is a pan-institutional, collaborative approach to hands-on learning that uses the campus as a vehicle to engage students, faculty and staff in solving real-world challenges.

Image of building SW1 gateway. — The integration of research, teaching and operations makes BCIT’s Gateway building an outstanding example of the Living Lab initiative.

Living Labs:

foster skills development through access to campus infrastructure and information,
demonstrate leading edge technologies and equipment, and
present opportunities to conceptualize, design and implement solutions that advance the state of practice.

Participatory research & learning

The term “Living Lab” references an approach to research that is participatory in nature. Research subjects and even the researchers themselves become participants who interact through the course of their daily lives with whatever it is that is being tested. Through their interactions, participants learn about how what is being tested performs, how people learn to adapt to it, and how improvements can be made. Please join us at an upcoming event:

Living Labs Map

We have an interactive story map that showcases Living Labs opportunities and projects on BCIT’s Burnaby Campus. This includes 40 locations from Guichon Alley at the north end of campus to the restored meadow at Lot O at the south.

Burnaby Campus Living Labs Map

Upcoming Living Labs Lectures & Events

There are no upcoming events at this time.

Principles for moving forward

BCIT is implementing the Living Lab initiative across the entire Institute. The intent is to establish the protocols and build a culture that enables using the campus as a test-bed for new ideas that also foster student learning and skills development.

The following overarching principles help guide us to develop BCIT campuses as Living Labs:

Make infrastructure and building systems visible and data pertaining to their operation accessible to the BCIT community for educational and applied research purposes.
Adopt a problem-based learning pedagogy to engage faculty and students directly in helping to solve challenges pertaining to the campus’ operations and development.
Showcase best practices both in the built and natural environment as well as in the operations and educational delivery activities of the Institute so that all students at BCIT are exposed to sustainability in action – regardless of what program they take.
Pursue implementation of the Living Lab initiative while respecting the Institute’s core business, current commitments, and the limits of BCIT resources.

Living Labs Initiatives & projects

history of Living Labs