Living Building Challenge

First Projects Certified Under Living Building Challenge

Photo courtesy Omega Center for Sustainable Living
The Omega Center for Sustainable Living is one of the first two certified Living Buildings. The wastewater treatment center met requirements in all six categories, and produced excess electricity.

14 October 2010 - The wait is over: the first projects have been certified as meeting the stringent terms of the Living Building Challenge (LBC). Two buildings have achieved full certification after their first year of operation, and a third has earned recognition for performing to LBC standards in four out of six categories. Although all three projects were completed by May 2009, they had to demonstrate through a year’s worth of data that they actually met design intentions for net-zero energy and water use.

The two projects achieving full certification—the Omega Center for Sustainable Living in Rhinebeck, New York, and the Tyson Living Learning Center in Eureka, Missouri—met the prerequisites for site, water, energy, materials, human health, and beauty. (Another set of prerequisites, dealing with social equity, was added in 2009.)

The third project—the Eco-Sense house in Victoria, British Columbia—achieved all of the “petals” of the metaphorical Living Building “flower” except for energy and materials. The owners, Ann and Gord Baird, had begun building their earthen home before LBC became available. Since they had already purchased many of the materials, some of which didn’t meet LBC specifications, and decided to use combustible fuel for heat, the Bairds could not pursue full LBC certification for their house. {read rest}