A program created and maintained by of the International Living Future Institute, The Living Building Challenge (LBC) is a philosophy, advocacy tool, and certification program. What is now known as the Living Building Challenge began in the mid-1990s with a team of designers embarking upon the implementation of some of the most advanced sustainable design theories available in the design of The EpiCenter in Bozeman, Montana; successes, challenges, and environmental implications were documented through various matrixes, articles, and what would later become version 1.0 of the Living Building Challenge. In 2006, the Living Building Challenge was publically launched; Living Building Challenge version 1.0 was gifted to the Cascadia Green
Building Council in August 2006, and three months later the Challenge was formally launched to the public, with the first project certified in 2010 (The Living Building Challenge 3.0, 2014). The International Living Future Institute was formed to provide
ongoing oversight and updates to the LBC (Anonymous, 2013), with a mission to lead the transformation to a world that is socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative (The Living Building Challenge 3.0, 2014). Since its inception in 2006, two more versions of the Living Building Challenge have been released: v2.0 launched in November 2009 and v3.0 released in May 2014, which challenges designers to design ideal “green” buildings (Atlee, 2011). The LBC is a recognized program by the Canadian Green Building Council (CaGBC), offering courses and education on the system.
Implemented at all scales, from buildings to infrastructure, landscapes and
neighbourhoods, the Living Building Challenge differentiates itself from other GBRS by advocating for net-zero use, net-zero water use and fully onsite waste processing over a minimum of 12-months of continuous occupancy (Ching & Shapiro, 2014). Quite diverse in the categories of built environment certifications, projects fall into four different
“typologies”: Renovation, Infrastructure + Landscape, Building, and Community, with seven performance areas in each: Site, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity and Beauty. These seven performance areas are then divided into twenty Imperatives visually represented by the “petals” in their logo (CaGBC, 2016b).
And although certification requires meeting the 20 imperatives, some typologies require fewer than twenty Imperatives because the conditions are either not applicable or may compromise other critical needs: All twenty Imperatives are required for Buildings, fifteen for Renovations and seventeen for Landscape and Infrastructure projects (Living Future, 2015b). Unlike other GBRS, including LEED, certification is based on actual (not modeled) performance: A project must be operational for 12 consecutive months before the building can apply for any level of certification.
Projects can achieve three levels of certification: Living Building (or Full) Certification, Petal Certification or Net Zero Energy Building Certification, and both Living Building and Petal certifications have three steps to certification: Registration, Documentation +
Operation and Audit + Certification. Living Building Certification is the most difficult of the three, requiring projects to demonstrate that the built environment can help restore the natural environment, rather than take from it. Recognizing the difficulty in achievement, Petal Certification was introduced to acknowledge the achievement in attaining some, but not all, of the Petal Imperatives; three or more Petals must be achieved for
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certification, including at least one of the following: Water, Energy or Materials, as well as both 01: Limits to Growth and Imperative 20: Inspiration and Education. Net Zero Energy certification recognizes building projects that achieve the Energy Petal, along with a subset of Imperatives within the Place and Beauty Petal) (Living Future, 2015b)). As of publishing, there are 23 buildings with Net Zero Energy certification in the U.S. (none in Canada), 10 buildings in Canada with Petal certification (25 in the U.S.), and nine with Full Living Building certification in Canada, with 92 in the U.S. (Living Future, 2015c).
3.1. Materials in LBC
The intent of the Materials Petal is to help create a materials economy that is non-toxic, ecologically restorative, transparent, and socially equitable, with the Imperatives within the Materials Petal section aim to remove the worst known offending materials and practices (The Living Building Challenge 3.0, 2014). Within the Materials category, there are five imperatives: Red List, Embodied Carbon Footprint, Responsible Industry, Living Economy Sourcing, and Net Positive Waste, with the last two imperatives being new titles in the v3.0 release (Atlee, n.d.).
Table B3: Overview of Material credits in The Living Building Challenge Petal Credit Overview
Embodied Carbon Footprint
One-time carbon offset equal to the calculated total carbon footprint of the project (either to Living Future Carbon Exchange or an approved carbon offset provider)
Responsible
Industry Project must advocate for the creation and adoption of third-party certified standards for sustainable resource extraction and fair labour practices.
All wood certified to FSC 100% labelling standards
All projects must use one Declare product for every 500 square meters of gross building area; must send Declare product information to 10 manufactures not using Declare.
Living Economy
Sourcing Incorporate place-based solutions and contribute to the expansion of a regional economy rooted in sustainable practices, products and services:
- min. 20% materials construction budget from 500km of construction site
- additional 30% materials construction budget from 1000km of construction site or closer
- additional 25% materials construction budget from 5000km of construction site
- 25% from any location
*Consultants must come from within 2500km of project location Net Positive
Waste Strive to reduce or eliminate the production of waste during design, construction, operation, and end of life. All Projects must feature at least one salvaged material per 500 square meters of gross building area or be an adaptive reuse of
an existing structure.
Create a ‘Material Conservation Management Plan’
Dedicated infrastructure for the collection of recyclables and compostable food scraps.
During construction, must divert wasted materials to the following levels:
Metal- 99%
Paper & Cardboard- 99% Soil & Biomass- 100%
Rigid Foam, Carpet & Insulation- 95% All others- 90%
The latest version of Living Building Challenge also integrates the new JUST™ label, a voluntary disclosure program and tool on social justice, or a “nutrition label” for socially just and equitable organizations, similar to the Declare program, both created and managed by The International Living Future Institute’s™.
Issues present themselves in the LBC materials challenge, as in all other GBRS. Atlee (2011) found that many project teams working toward the LBC have found the red-list among the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of the Challenge, particularly in conjunction with another Materials Imperative, “Appropriate Sourcing,” that steers design teams toward regionally sourced materials.
In Imperative 10- Red List, documents demonstrating genuine effort to exclude Red List products may be accepted if a product includes a material or chemical on the list.