A rigorous green certification system is recognizing the next phase of eco design, which its founders describe as "the world's greenest buildings," according to KTVZ-TV.com in central Oregon.
Founded by Jason F. McLennan in 2009 through the Cascadia Green Building Council, the Living Building Challenge (LBC) is a green ratings system for design and construction that judges a building based on its actual performance, not just its projected performance at the design stage.To date, it has recognized six buildings for their green credentials. Only three have been successful in meeting all its stringent requirements and consequently fully certified as "living."
"These are the world's greenest buildings," McLennan said. "It is a huge leap forward from conventional green construction. These buildings will never get an energy or water bill again."
Projects must be in operation for a minimum of 12 months before they become eligible to participate in the challenge and they can only achieve "living" status after fulfilling requirements in the categories of site, water, energy, health, materials, equity and beauty.
"It takes about 14-16 months to go through the certification process and we are a rigorous process so there are not that many buildings fully certified," McLennan said. "The ones that are (certified) are game changers because they become more than a building. They create a whole community of changed people around them."
The International Living Future Institute, a non-profit that was created to take over running the LBC since its inception, hopes its guidelines will change current green construction philosophy and become as powerful as eco-building ratings system Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED as it is better known. But unlike LBC, LEED does not certify new buildings based on measurements of their actual performance.
McLennan said, "You'd be surprised no green standards actually go and check if the project is fulfilling what they had planned to do. We knew in reality buildings typically don't perform the way they are intended so we wanted to rectify this and base our challenge on reality."
Read more about home accreditation and certification.
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