Green Options » Living Building Challenge

Washington University in St. Louis May Sport Greenest Building in North America

Jeff Kart — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:15:48 +0000

LEED, for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, has become the alpha acronym when referring to green, or eco-friendly, buildings. The standard, from the U.S. Green Building Council, recently went 3.0.

Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, is taking the green diploma to an even higher degree. University officials are betting a new Living Learning Center will meet the Living Building Challenge, the world’s most stringent green building rating system from the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, a chapter of the USGBC and its Canadian counterpart.

Living Building Leader Program Educates Practitioners on the Latest in Green Building

Kristin Dispenza — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:16:40 +0000

In 2006, the Cascadia Region Green Building Council announced its Living Building Challenge. (For a description of the challenge, see Moving Beyond LEED.) Its goal is to move green building practices beyond LEED Platinum, aiming for buildings that have zero impact upon their environment. So far more than 50 Living Buildings across the United States are in the design or construction phase.

To augment the Living Building Challenge, Cascadia is developing a companion program known as Living Building Leader. This program will provide a venue for members of the building industry to share knowledge and develop green building skill sets. Living Building Leader is launching a series of sessions covering green building topics which will be taught by experts from fields relating to sustainable building; the sessions are intended for professionals who already have experience in green building.

Moving Beyond LEED

Kristin Dispenza — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 13:28:03 +0000

The Cascadia Region Green Building Council (covering Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia) is already attempting to push beyond the LEED envelope by issuing its Living Building Challenge.

This challenge sets a new standard for what it means to be green. Its icon is a vibrant orange flower, meant to suggest elegance and efficiency; the flower, like a pie graph, is broken into parts, or petals. The 6 petals correspond to performance measures in the built environment:

Site
Materials
Energy
Indoor Quality
Water
Beauty and Inspiration