Living Building Challenge

By Jonathan Tucker
Launched in November 2006, the Living Building Challenge (LBC) has already proven to be a transformative program, with over sixty projects in various stages of development around North America and beyond. The Challenge inspires green building teams to leap forward and innovate new techniques – to demonstrate that ecological balance in the built environment is possible using current technology. To be “Living” the building(s) must achieve each of the Challenge’s environmentally critical imperatives (no exceptions). It must generate all of its own energy onsite using renewable sources; capture and treat all of its own water; be constructed of nontoxic, sustainably sourced materials; use only previously developed sites (ending sprawl); and be beautiful and inspiring to its inhabitants. Unlike LEED, Challenge certification is based on 12 months of actual, not predicted, performance, ensuring that environmental claims reflect reality – not hype. Thus, to be “Living” a building must both inspire and educate the people who interact with it, transforming end users and visitors into agents of change. This single unifying standard catalyzes comprehensive change within the built environment, while giving end-users and policy makers a clear path toward true sustainability. The Challenge is now poised to make a bigger leap into countries around the world.

The Living Building Challenge’s depth and breadth make it unique among green performance standards. The Living Building Challenge reflects a belief that if we try to solve these issues in isolation – cutting carbon without addressing the toxicity, habitat impacts or social justice implications of our decisions – we only shift the problem. LBC includes standards pertaining to community, food, transportation, health, education and social equity. An important aspect of participating in the LBC is the intense systems level design integration that is required between different design disciplines. This critical process of collaboration is paramount for fostering breakthroughs and inevitably extends into the regulatory arena. For example, a LBC project has already led to some important policy reforms in Oregon with regard to water reuse in buildings. The unique strength of the LBC is its ability to transcend the specific demands for each individual project following its regimen, but to also act as an advocacy and activist organization, catalyzing significant reform at broader levels with far-reaching positive results within communities and even entire states, and potential to be further effective at the national scale. The enthusiastic uptake of LBC guidelines for projects in the United States and in other countries demonstrates its translational capabilities as a regionally specific, yet globally replicable model.

The standards of design demanded within the framework of the LBC resonate very well with Fuller’s Preferred State ideology. “The Living Building Challenge is a visionary strategy for creating a socially just, culturally rich and ecologically benign built environment. Rather than providing points for incremental improvements in building performance, it measures success against the end goal of true sustainability and provides a framework for restoring balance in the human ecosystem.”

The Team behind the Living Building Challenge is very solid, well spoken and dedicated. With courage and diligence they are translating our deepest understandings of sustainability into one of, if not the most, comprehensive set of design and performance based standards related to the built environment. Their purpose is to effect a paradigm shift in our entire approach to the buildings and communities we design, construct, renovate and occupy and to serve as a catalyst for innovation.

The mission of the International Living Building Institute’s Challenge is ambitious, and it will be exciting to follow the organization’s growth:
“Living Building Challenge is a cohesive standard – pulling together the most progressive thinking from the worlds of architecture, engineering, planning, landscape design and policy. It challenges us to ask the question: What if every single act of design and construction made the world a better place? What if every intervention resulted in greater biodiversity; increased soil health; additional outlets for beauty and personal expression; a deeper understanding of climate, culture and place; a realignment of our food and transportation systems; and a more profound sense of what it means to be a citizen of a planet where resources and opportunities are provided fairly and equitably?”

For more information, please follow this link: http://ilbi.org/