Traditional engineering education often isolates theory from environmental reality. We observed that students understood climate challenges conceptually but lacked opportunities to design real interventions. The Living Lab was created to embed planetary boundaries into coursework, converting campus sustainability challenges into structured, solution-driven learning experiences.
The Living Lab operates through a structured curriculum design approach where planetary boundaries are mapped to course learning outcomes. Instead of treating sustainability as a standalone subject, each core engineering course embeds a real-world environmental challenge within its academic framework. Students apply systems thinking, define measurable environmental indicators, and design interventions grounded in scientific methods. Projects are not add-ons but integral assessment components aligned with course objectives. Faculty collaboratively integrate data collection, impact evaluation, and cross-course continuity to ensure that learning moves from conceptual understanding to evidence-based action. The campus becomes a testing ground where theory, measurement, iteration, and reflection are continuously linked, reinforcing planetary health literacy through applied systems practice.
Since its launch in 2022, the Living Lab has expanded from a course-level experiment to an institutional curriculum framework adopted across multiple engineering subjects. Planetary boundary mapping is now integrated into course design and assessment structures, ensuring continuity across cohorts. The approach has generated applied outputs including prototypes, research publications, and funded pilots, reinforcing its academic credibility. The next phase focuses on documenting the framework formally and enabling replication in other institutions seeking systemic integration of planetary health into higher education.
Institutions can adopt the model by mapping planetary boundaries to course outcomes, identifying local environmental challenges, and embedding measurable intervention projects into semester assessments. Faculty collaboration across disciplines is essential to maintain systems continuity. The framework is adaptable to diverse campuses and does not require major infrastructure investment.
