Campus as Lab Workshop Sparks New Ideas for Student Capstone Projects

Partnership between faculty, students, and administrators helps connect academic learning and real-world sustainability improvements on campus 

October 03, 2024

As part of Plan 2030, the Office of Sustainability facilitates opportunities for the campus to serve as a living lab, where students play an active role to research, present and/or drive forward solutions to address on-campus sustainability challenges as part of their academic capstone.

During Climate Week 2024, the Office of Sustainability hosted a workshop with campus partners in academics and operations to generate new capstone project ideas. Partnering with operations empowers students to play an active role in researching, presenting, and driving forward solutions for real change.  

Jessica Prata (AVP, Sustainability) and Daniel Allalemdjian (Director, Sustainability and Transportation) explained how capstones can help schools and departments make progress on Plan 2030 goals for which they are responsible. Allalemdjian outlined how “capstone projects can include data analysis to identify opportunities for change, assess resources, recommend approach, develop communications, or conduct project evaluation.” 

Columbia Dining, Event Management, Transportation and other departments have all participated in semester-long projects with students studying in one of Columbia’s sustainability programs.

Vicki Dunn (AVP, Columbia Dining) and Professor Jenna Lawrence (Columbia Climate School) discussed the most recent capstone project and its success. Dunn cited the time student participants spent learning about the operation and analyzing procurement data to calculate the related carbon emissions of food purchases. The group surveyed students and conducted research to recommend incremental changes that could achieve a notable emissions reduction without taking away from the student dining experience. 

The Campus Lab workshop ended with attendees brainstorming potential ideas for future capstones including energy use in labs, plastic use in clinical labs, shipping and packaging waste in student mail, and building metering.

Capstones are a great tool to leverage the expertise across the university and harness the creativity of students to generate practical climate and sustainability solutions that can be applied on our campus and beyond.

Daniel Zarrilli, Chief Climate and Sustainability Officer

Schools or departments wishing to engage on Campus as Lab type work whether that be capstone, fellowships, or other ideas, should contact Daniel Allalemdjian in the Office of Sustainability by emailing [email protected].

As Columbia University continues to lead in campus sustainability, the Campus as Lab mission and programming promises to play an increasingly vital role in shaping a greener, more sustainable future for the institution and beyond.