Managing Organization: International Living Future Institute
The Living Building Challenge® (LBC) is the built environment’s most rigorous performance certification standard. The program calls for the creation of building projects at all scales that operate as cleanly, beautifully, and efficiently as nature’s architecture. It is a philosophy, certification, and advocacy tool for projects to move beyond merely being less bad and to become truly regenerative. The certification is based on performance during a year of full occupancy.
Living Buildings are:
- Regenerative buildings that connect occupants to light, air, food, nature, and community.
- Self-sufficient and remain within the resource limits of their site.
- Create a positive impact on the human and natural systems that interact with them.
The Living Building Challenge consists of seven performance categories, or “Petals”:
- Place: Restoring a Healthy Relationship Between Nature, Place and Community
- Water: Creating Developments that Operate within the Water Balance of a Given Place and Climate
- Energy: Relying on Renewable Resources
- Health + Happiness: Fostering Environments that Optimize Physical and Psychological Health and Well Being
- Materials: Building with Products that are Safe for All Species Through Time
- Equity: Supporting a Just, Equitable World
- Beauty: Celebrating Design that Uplifts the Human Spirit
A Building project can pursue these certification paths based on the level of achievement.
