Living Building Challenge
Summary
The Living Building Challenge is a performance-based certification from the International Living Future Institute built on seven Petals and 20 Imperatives. Certification is all-or-nothing by tier, so the target tier and typology are set at the start of design.
Cols
Scope
- Structure: seven Petals, each with Imperatives; 20 Imperatives in total, 10 Core and 10 that push toward positive impact
- Core Green Building Certification: all 10 Core Imperatives
- Petal certification: all 10 Core Imperatives plus all Imperatives in one or more of the Water, Energy, or Materials Petals
- Living certification: all Imperatives assigned to the project's typology
- Zero Energy: a separate ILFI program, essentially the Energy Petal; ILFI also certifies Zero Carbon projects
- Version: LBC 4.0 launched in May 2019 with Core; sources cite 4.1 materials, so confirm the current version with ILFI
Coordination
- Materials Petal: Red List and Declare screening; see the healthy materials note
- Energy Petal: zero energy accounting; see the net zero note
Sources
- International Living Future Institute: Living Building Challenge, https://living-future.org/lbc/
- BuildingGreen: Living Building Challenge 4.0 released alongside new Core program, https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/living-building-challenge-40-released-alongside-new-core-program
- Green Building Advisor: a discussion of the Living Building Challenge program, https://greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/a-discussion-of-the-living-building-challenge-program
- City of Seattle: Living Building Pilot Program, https://seattle.gov/documents/departments/sdci/permits/lbppgreenssheet4.pdf
- Wikimedia Commons: Seattle - Bullitt Center 03.jpg, by Joe Mabel (CC BY-SA 3.0), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seattle_-_Bullitt_Center_03.jpg