Congratulations to Matthew Mitchell and Jörg Bohlmann for being two of the eight UBC projects honored with the 2025 Campus as a Living Lab (CLL) Award.
About the Campus as a Living Lab (CLL) Fund
The Campus as a Living Lab (CLL) Fund supports innovative sustainability projects that use UBC’s campus as a real-world testbed for research and collaboration. Launched in 2020, the initiative brings together faculty, staff, students, and partners to develop and test solutions to pressing environmental challenges. The 2025 competition awarded $500,000 to eight projects from across more than 28 departments and operational units at UBC Vancouver.
About Matthew’s Project
Title: Cooling and Conservation: Managing Campus Green Spaces for Biodiversity and Climate Change
Faculty lead: Matthew Mitchell, Assistant Professor, Department of Forest Resources Management, Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship
Staff lead: Emma Luker, Engagement and Sustainability Planner, Campus + Community Planning
Co-lead: Claire McPhee, Climate Resilience & Biodiversity Applied Research Coordinator, SEEDS Sustainability Program, Campus + Community Planning
This project will collect microclimate data and acoustic wildlife data from birds and bats in green spaces to better understand how heat influences wildlife use of these areas. The findings will help inform the design of resilient UBC landscapes that support both human and non-human residents. The project will also emphasize student learning, community science, and knowledge sharing within and beyond UBC.
About Jörg’s Project:
Title: Chemical Atlas of Native BC Plant Species (CAN-BC): An Innovations Resource for Sustainability Research, Learning, and Knowledge Sharing
Faculty lead: Jörg Bohlmann, Professor, Michael Smith Laboratories, Faculty of Science / Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship
Staff lead: Dee Ann Benard, Garden Director, UBC Botanical Garden
Co-lead: Adriana Lopez Villalobos, Research Technician, GIS, UBC Botanical Garden
Co-lead: Armando Alcazar Magaña, Analytical Project Manager & Senior Research Scientist, Life Sciences Institute
Co-lead: Tara Moreau, Associate Director of Sustainability and Community Programs, UBC Botanical Garden
The CAN-BC Project will uncover the untapped chemical and biological diversity of native British Columbia plant species at the UBC Botanical Garden. Findings will be compiled into an online tool, providing the UBC community and broader audiences with resources to support learning, research, and applications spanning ecology, biotechnology, and bioproduct development.