Denver, Colo. (Nov. 14, 2006) — In its ongoing effort to raise the bar and define a true measure of sustainability in the built environment, the Cascadia Region Green Building Council today issued the Living Building Challenge. This evolving set of guidelines, designed for building owners, architects engineers and design professionals, elevates the criteria for a green building to a level that was previously unthinkable. The Living Building Challenge was announced here during a keynote session at the 2006 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo. 
 
“At the heart of the Living Building Challenge is the belief that our society needs to move quickly to a state of balance between the natural and built environments,” said Jason F. McLennan, Cascadia’s chief executive officer. “Cascadia feels compelled to release the Living Building Challenge to provide a signal to the green building industry where it needs to head in the next few years if we are to address the daunting environmental challenges ahead.”
 
The Living Building standard comprises 16 simple yet profound prerequisites—there are no credits to tabulate.  The prerequisites fall in six categories: Site Design, Energy, Materials, Water, Indoor Quality, and Beauty & Inspiration. Prerequisites are performance based, not prescriptive, and are based on ideal targets that would result in truly sustainable performance. For example, a Living Building must supply all of its own energy and water needs with renewable sources captured on-site; owners and builders may choose any design and implementation to achieve this end. All 16 prerequisites must be met to comply for certification (some specific exceptions may apply as outlined in the standard). The Living Building standard works for all building types and applies to new and existing construction. A project must be completed and operating for at least one year before eligible to apply for certification.
 
The Living Building guidelines are designed to build upon the logic and wisdom of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environment Design tiered rating system.  Launched in 1999, LEED® Platinum certification, the highest rating tier, was viewed by many in the industry as highest level of environmental performance possible. Since that time, however, advances in building design techniques, modeling tools and materials, along with cost reductions in energy-generation technologies such as solar and wind, have made it possible to create modern buildings that achieve zero energy and zero waste. “We hope the ideas for Living Building Challenge will help the USGBC define the upcoming LEED Platinum Version 3.0, and influence the outcomes for greater environmental benefit of buildings,” adds McLennan.  “Our system is inherently difficult to achieve, but easy to document.”
 
“Addressing climate change and other critical environmental problems requires taking a step back and creating a new vision of the role of buildings in our society, “ said Bob Berkebile, founding principal, BNIM Architects. “The Living Building Challenge is the culmination of the latest art and science of sustainable building design. The standard will encourage dialog within the building industry that will foster the emergence of a new category of living buildings that require far less of our planet’s scarce resources than traditional buildings.” 
 
Specific rules on how to document compliance and seek the Living Building designation will be presented in a forthcoming document “The Living Building User’s Guide.” Other tools and processes are planned. Cascadia welcomes participation from industry professionals in this effort in terms of feedback, research and sponsorship. For more information, see www.cascadiagbc.org.