Living Laboratory
Sustainability at Southern Oregon University
SOU as a Living Laboratory
At Southern Oregon University, learning is active, applied, and real.
Our campus and community form a living laboratory where students turn ideas into action and theory into real-world solutions. Learning is rooted in place, shaped by relationships, and focused on the systems that connect our built, natural, and social environments.
Students work with real data, real challenges, and real partners testing ideas, solving problems, and creating measurable impact. From energy and water to food systems, forests, and community wellbeing, projects are grounded in Southern Oregon and designed to make a difference beyond campus.
Every major is part of the living laboratory.
Students collaborate with faculty, staff, and community partners to experiment, innovate, and lead on campus, in the region, and beyond.
Why a Living Laboratory
- Hands-on, interdisciplinary learning across majors
- Real-world experience with authentic constraints, data, and outcomes
- Direct impact on campus and community sustainability goals
- Stronger leadership and problem-solving skills
- A feedback loop between research and practice
- Meaningful relationships with community and professional partners
Learn. Test. Improve.
At Southern Oregon University, students don’t just study systems, they help shape them. Our Living Laboratory is where learning becomes action, and education leaves a lasting mark on campus and beyond.
One of the most visible expressions of SOU’s Living Laboratory is our commitment to energy resilience. Through campus-wide solar and battery storage projects, students engage directly with real infrastructure that is strengthening SOU’s energy independence, reducing emissions, and increasing resilience during outages and emergencies.
This hands-on work is deeply connected to SOU’s Community Resilience and Leadership program, where students explore how energy, leadership and community preparedness intersect. Together, these efforts turn the campus and community into a testing ground for ideas that matter, linking technical systems with leadership, policy, and place-based solutions.
Engage with real battery storage systems that strengthen campus energy resilience.
Shasta and McLoughlin Solar Panels
Plant, observe, and learn from food systems rooted in place.
Support the Living Lab at Southern Oregon University
1. Sign up for our mailing list
2. Become a community partner in the living lab through the Community Resilience and Leadership Program
3. Donate to the living lab
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability at SOU
1250 Siskiyou Blvd
Ashland, OR 97520
sustainability@sou.edu
541.552.8139
