Living Labs for Sustainable
Development: The Role of the European
School of Sustainability Sciences
and Research
Walter Leal Filho
Abstract This first chapter provides an overview of the concept of living labs for
sustainable development and introduces the European School of Sustainability Science and Research as an example of a European wide integrative effort to foster
sustainability using a living labs approach.
Keywords Living labs · Sustainable development · Innovation · Ideas · Europe
1 Introduction
The current levels of depletion of natural resources suggests that we urgently need
to change the way we teach and do research on environmental issues as a whole,
and the ways we tackle matters related to sustainable development in particular. We
need to move away from linear economic models, and towards circular ones, where
renewable resources are used and social engagement is catalysed.
The “Agenda 2030” agreed by the UN in 2015 and the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) in particular, are acting as drivers to more collaborative action in the
field of sustainable development, by means of the “quadruple helix model”, i.e. a
model which entails linkages between government, academia, society and business.
These actors may join efforts in seeking local solutions to global problems, hence
mobilising a variety of sectors of society, some of which are not often engaged on
sustainability efforts.
The higher education sector has been responding to the challenges sustainability
poses to it, in a variety of ways. It may be by means of participatory approaches
(Disterheft et al. 2014), or by executing campus assessments (Arroyo 2015), among
many other means.
W. Leal Filho (B)
European School of Sustainability Science and Research, Research and Transfer Centre
“Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management”,
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Ulmenliet 20, 21033 Hamburg, Germany
e-mail: walter.leal2@haw-hamburg.de
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15604-6_1
3
Development: The Role of the European
School of Sustainability Sciences
and Research
Walter Leal Filho
Abstract This first chapter provides an overview of the concept of living labs for
sustainable development and introduces the European School of Sustainability Science and Research as an example of a European wide integrative effort to foster
sustainability using a living labs approach.
Keywords Living labs · Sustainable development · Innovation · Ideas · Europe
1 Introduction
The current levels of depletion of natural resources suggests that we urgently need
to change the way we teach and do research on environmental issues as a whole,
and the ways we tackle matters related to sustainable development in particular. We
need to move away from linear economic models, and towards circular ones, where
renewable resources are used and social engagement is catalysed.
The “Agenda 2030” agreed by the UN in 2015 and the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) in particular, are acting as drivers to more collaborative action in the
field of sustainable development, by means of the “quadruple helix model”, i.e. a
model which entails linkages between government, academia, society and business.
These actors may join efforts in seeking local solutions to global problems, hence
mobilising a variety of sectors of society, some of which are not often engaged on
sustainability efforts.
The higher education sector has been responding to the challenges sustainability
poses to it, in a variety of ways. It may be by means of participatory approaches
(Disterheft et al. 2014), or by executing campus assessments (Arroyo 2015), among
many other means.
W. Leal Filho (B)
European School of Sustainability Science and Research, Research and Transfer Centre
“Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management”,
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Ulmenliet 20, 21033 Hamburg, Germany
e-mail: walter.leal2@haw-hamburg.de
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15604-6_1
3