Jason F. McLennan Guest Blogs about The Living Building Challenge, a Finalist in the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

We are honored to be counted among the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Finalists. The Challenge’s Idea Index and the visionary concepts and optimism about the future that it showcases are proof positive that we have the capacity to rise to the seemingly insurmountable social, economic and environmental problems of our time. Each of these exciting and worthy projects embodies Buckminster Fuller’s belief in the power of “comprehensive anticipatory design science” to create a humane and ecologically balanced world.

The Living Building Challenge, our contribution to this effort, is premised on a simple but profound observation about human behavior. We believe that when provided with a clear and compelling vision of what is required and possible, people rise to the challenges they face – no matter how great. When small improvements are presented as the 'solution', change happens slowly and erratically. When people understand 'end-game' solutions, human innovation can work wonders.

We created the Living Building Challenge in response to the need for a clearly articulated, transformative vision for the built environment. In its first iteration, the Living Building Challenge redefined the concept of green buildings by setting an extremely ambitious goal and spurring the development of a new community of green building leaders ready to create ultra-efficient buildings that generate all of their own energy onsite using renewable sources; capture and treat all of their own water; are constructed of nontoxic, sustainably sourced materials; use only previously developed sites; and are beautiful and inspiring to their inhabitants. In the three years since it was released, the Living Building Challenge has had an outsized impact, not just on the over sixty teams now pursuing the Challenge, but on the green building movement as a whole and on each of the communities in which Living Building projects are now underway.

When the Omega Center in Rhinebeck, New York, planted its constructed wetlands, the whole community turned out to lend a hand.” Image Courtesy of the Omega Center for Sustainable Living

In November 2009 we launched Living Building Challenge 2.0, which expands on the original program and allows the Living Building Challenge to realize its full potential. Living Building Challenge 2.0 encourages the implementation of solutions beyond the building scale to maximize ecological benefit while maintaining self-sufficiency at the appropriate level: city block, neighborhood, or larger community. Living Building Challenge 2.0 applies twenty "imperatives" – such as urban agriculture, limits to growth, ecological water flow, and net zero energy — to everything from small in-home remodels to community- and campus-wide initiatives, as well as infrastructure projects like bridges, roads and parks.

Living Building Challenge projects inspire a new way of running construction sites. Image Courtesy of Geome House

To-date, five projects have completed construction and entered a 12-month post-occupancy verification period, which will culminate in a third-party auditing process. We anticipate certifying the world’s first Living Building some time this year. The impact of this milestone can’t be overstated, and we are inspired by the quality of these path-breaking projects. Yet, in some ways, the Living Building Challenge has already proved itself as a tool for transformative change. The work of a Living Building Challenge research team with our technical support prompted the State of Oregon to pass new greywater and rainwater legislation in 2009 legalizing the collection and reuse of greywater and rainwater. This success has the potential to save millions of gallons of water throughout the state for any project – regardless of whether it pursues Living Building Challenge status or not. A number of cities throughout the Pacific Northwest have now launched incentive programs to encourage the creation of Living Buildings and several regional governments have used the Living Building Challenge to revise their code and regulatory structures to remove barriers to this level of green building.

Spurred by a Living Building Challenge project (Pearl Family Housing), regulatory officials and Portland’s leading green building practitioners gather to discuss regulatory, behavioral and technological barriers to achieving water independence”. Image Courtesy of Central City Concern

Before the first Living Building has even been certified, we have witnessed a profound transformation of expectations on the part of policy makers, designers, builders and end users.

We can only imagine what the coming year will bring.

Living Building Challenge
Jason F. McLennan

Click HERE for article in Metropolis POV section about Living City Design Competition. This competition looks at applying the LBC 2.0 criteria to cities.

Website: Living Building Challenge 2.0

Challenge Related Links: Fellows Blog + Feature Page