Earlier this year, we took a look at four projects racing to meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge. Now, the International Living Building Institute has completed third-party certification audits and announced the world’s first Living Buildings. The Omega Center for Sustainable Living (NY) and Tyson Living Learning Center (MO) both earned full certification, while Eco-Sense (BC) earned Petal Recognition for meeting four of six petals.
Everything is changing over at the Cascadia Green Building Council. Dropping the word “Region” from its name, the organization has new moniker to go with a new motto, “Envisioning the Living Future.” But that’s not all. The mission is new, too. These changes seem designed to convey an upbeat focus not on individual buildings or projects but the whole built environment.
The Living Building Challenge, run by the Cascadia Green Building Council, is growing in popularity these days. Referred to as one of the most advanced green building rating systems in the world, it's growing, I believe, in part because of its rigor. The Challenge is performance based, which means a project has to perform as modeled for one full year prior to receiving certification. Currently, four projects (see below) are racing to be the first to obtain Living Building Challenge certification.
