Campus as a Living Lab

Utilizing the IU Indianapolis campus as a living laboratory for sustainability

Universities are uniquely situated to address their own operational sustainability goals while also providing real-life sustainability experiences for students and researchers. 

IU Indianapolis Sustainability often partners with faculty to use courses, capstone classes, research projects, and internships to provide students with hands-on sustainability opportunities that advance IU Indianapolis's sustainability goals.

Are you a faculty member or student interested in working on a sustainability project?

Contact IU Indianapolis Sustainability to discuss options

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Example living lab projects

  • Students in O'Neill's capstone course benchmark campus buildings against LEED Operations + Maintenance practices to make recommendations for how to improve operations in pursuit of LEED O+M certification for campus buildings.  
  • The Center for Earth and Environmental Science (CEES) offers service learning experiences that collect data for IU Indianapolis's biodiversity assessment, soil stody, and tree canopy.  Students from any class and major are welcome to sign up for these service learning events.
  • The Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) conducts energy audits of campus buildings and makes energy efficiency recommendations back to the campus.
  • Students in the School of Science assist with restorating bioswales on campus with native, Indiana flora.
  • The O'Neill School's Principles of Sustainability class benchmarks IU Indianapolis's sustainability performance and identifies projects to improve it by drafting applications to the Greening IU Indianapolis Grant.
  • Undergraduate students in the Herron School of Art + Design studied human interactions at trash and recycle bins to understand how design impacts behavior.
  • A number of students from the Honors College have completed their Honors College credits in partnership with our office.