Scaling up smart and sustainable innovations across university campuses

With increasing environmental challenges and the pressures of rapid urbanisation, the need for innovative solutions has never been greater. Modern technologies such as AI, the Internet of Things and big data analytics have the potential to revolutionise urban planning and lay the foundation for the smarter cities of the future.

At a panel discussion held during the 2025 THE Global Sustainable Development Congress, Hong K. Lo, dean of engineering and director of the GREAT Smart Cities Institute at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), said that higher education institutions should work with local authorities, industry, students and faculty to drive sustainable innovation.

With its communities, facilities and services, Lo sees the HKUST campus as a small city within Hong Kong and a perfect place to test out sustainability ideas. Innovations such as a living lab and a sustainable smart campus have enabled hands-on experiences and offered a testbed for new ideas.

Campus experiments are bolstered by access to data from both the university and governmental organisations. Hong Kong’s Smart City Blueprint addresses the city’s needs through user-orientated services, such as smart living and smart environment categories. The Hong Kong government’s Open Data Portal website also offers extensive datasets that can inform better urban infrastructure planning.

However, neither big data nor prescribing solutions guarantees uptake. “Just having concepts doesn’t go very far,” Lo said. For an idea to succeed, it must bring tangible benefits to the people it affects. 

According to Lo, transferring knowledge and technology to government and industry is vital for building partnerships and maintaining momentum. HKUST has the largest graphics processing unit farm in Hong Kong and invites industry and government to use this facility, creating opportunities for collaboration and training. “It’s not only about research but also about education, student involvement and alumni partnership,” Lo said.

Over the last few years, HKUST has funded almost 50 projects, all implemented on campus. The ability to capture immediate feedback enables the university to identify the projects that are likely to succeed and those that may not meet community needs.

Many projects have been successfully adopted and are being rolled out beyond the university to broaden their impact. For example, a low-cost project that installed smart meters and offered small financial incentives for staying below the average air conditioning usage reduced power consumption by 60 per cent. This approach has since been expanded to more buildings. 

Even when ideas are not fully adopted, no innovation is wasted, as they provide valuable insights and learning opportunities, Lo remarked. For example, although solar panels installed on campus proved insufficient for contributing significantly to HKUST’s net-zero goals, they supported the development of nanocoding for cleaning processes and multicoloured solar panel options, both of which have commercial potential.

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