For many, the word “laboratory” is associated with sterile white lab coats and test tubes. Living Laboratories, however, don’t necessarily fit this mold, as demonstrated during the Living Laboratories Summit held at Stanford on Oct. 6 to 7 in partnership with the Technical University of Munich (TUM). 

According to the Living Laboratories Summit website, living laboratories are “test beds for high-impact decarbonization pilots and innovations accelerating the development and scaling of sustainability solutions.” If you think you’ve never seen one, think again — Stanford’s own O’Donohue Family Farm and Y2E2 are just two examples of living labs on campus. 

These locations were among the options that the Living Laboratories Summit’s roughly 125 participants could choose to tour during the two-day event. The summit, which aimed to “advance campus decarbonization, expand global academic collaboration, and empower student engagement,” involved the Doerr School and the Precourt Institute for Energy, as well as faculty and staff from university departments such as mechanical engineering, civil engineering and operations, among others.

The summit began early Monday morning with a reception and breakfast at Elliott Program Center (EPC). Participants spent Monday and Tuesday listening to lectures from leading energy and engineering experts, as well as touring living lab facilities and participating in round-table discussions on topics ranging from building decarbonization to energy demand and entrepreneurship. 

The summit attracted attendees from Switzerland, Germany, Indonesia and Vietnam, among other countries. Stanford students — graduate and undergraduate — attended the summit hoping to learn from “innovative and caring thinkers,” Mario Nicolas M.S. ’26 said.

“We’re in such a critical time for the climate right now that learning how we can incorporate these things in different sectors is very paramount,” Nicolas said. 

However, according to Amory Lovins, an adjunct professor in the civil and environmental engineering department, incorporating ideas across sectors has been slowed by a failure to teach about new technologies and innovations. 

“I see the same design errors repeated everywhere, because they’re widespread in our textbooks and in our classrooms,” Lovins said in his keynote speech, “Quintupling Global End-Use Energy Efficiency by Integrative Design.”

Energy efficient practices bring with them an entirely new set of obstacles and solutions than renewable energies did. According to Lovins, policy makers fail to understand that “the prize is much bigger and cheaper than they thought.” He advocated for sharing information about energy efficiency and integrative design through memes and social media, and hopes collaboration between students, educators and practitioners on quickly shifting integrative designs will soon become more commonplace.

Even for those largely unfamiliar with living labs prior to the summit, like Ashlea Wallington, Executive Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program in the School of Engineering, the programming was accessible and interesting. 

Wallington arrived on campus only a few months ago, and attended the summit hoping to learn more about living labs. Prior to the summit she “…kind of felt like [she] was in the [living] lab,” but didn’t know what was going on in it, Wallington said. 

Lovins’ remarks especially impacted Wallington. “We keep repeating the same mistakes because of the way construction is being taught, not just through universities but through professional academies and trades,” said Wallington, referring to her key takeaways from Lovins’ keynote speech.

Managing Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy Jimmy Chen hopes that this summit is more than just an event. 

“My vision is that people start forming relationships, start learning, and then start collaborating,” Chen said.

On Tuesday night, the summit closed with a dinner at Ricker Dining Hall hosted by the Explore Energy House. Though the Stanford Living Laboratories Summit may have drawn to a close, the next one is already set to take place at TUM in six months, Chen said. The summit at Stanford was only a pilot, as Chen hopes that more universities globally start to become involved and host Living Laboratories Summits as well.

“[The summit] is not the beginning and the end, it’s the beginning that we’ll learn from and build on,” said Chen.