Sustainability Research

Sustainability Research On Campus

• The Energy and Emissions Research Laboratory conducts internationally renowned, highly-cited interdisciplinary research designed to understand, quantify, model, and mitigate airborne pollutant emissions associated with global upstream energy production.
• The Carleton Research and Innovation in Sustainable Energy (C-RISE) house uses solar thermal energy and seasonal thermal storage to serve as a test bed for various innovative concepts aimed at reducing overall energy demands.
• The Carleton Building Performance Research Centre advances state-of-the-art building and community design and operations while improving comfort and usability. The Centre has over 40 graduate students and community/industry partners.
• The Human-Building Interaction Laboratory (HBIL): Led by Prof. Liam O’Brien, HBIL strives to understand two-way interaction between buildings and their occupants to maximize comfort while minimizing environmental impacts using a multidisciplinary approach.
• The Northern Nomad Tiny House is a net zero and a water-autonomous tiny house built through the collaborative efforts of Carleton architecture and engineering students.
• The Advanced Research and Innovation in Smart Environments (ARISE) building is intended to be a living laboratory and brings together professors and students from all faculties to collaborate on research and training in clean technology, health technology, information and communication technology, and accessibility. 
• Construction of the $25-million Co-Generation Facility, $5 million of which was funded through an Ottawa Hydro incentive program, better equips Carleton for the building growth on campus that has resulted in increased burdens on the existing steam plant and electrical service capacities of the heating plant. This project expands the heating plant to accommodate the installation of a combined heat and power (co-generation) system to support increasing needs in the most sustainable and economical manner.
• In 2023, Carleton opened the Centre for Advanced Building Envelope Research (CABER) at the CanmetENERGY campus in Ottawa’s Bells Corners. The state-of-the-art facility will be used to investigate innovative materials and design strategies for completing retrofits and building new homes in ways that prioritize energy conservation and affordability.