Pushing for Sustainability

The Living Building Challenge is an international sustainable building certification program created by the non-profit International Living Future Institute in 2006. It is characterized by the institute themselves as a philosophy, advocacy tool and certification program that pushes the most advanced measurement of sustainability in the built environment. These measurements can be applied to development of all scales, both new construction and renovation.

Pros:

- LBC focuses on a variety of factors of sustainability, not one single thing.

- The LBC is extensive and thorough, more so than other certifications such as LEED Platinum.

- LBC has focuses on local sourcing on landscaping.

- A year of data after the project is required for certification. This ensures that the sustainable technologies work in practice.

- No Red List materials are usable for LBC certifications.

Cons:

- The LBC is unrealistic for many projects due to the stringing requirements, reducing the implementation and overall green footprint.

- Intensity of challenge makes larger scale projects a near impossibility. This is because some sustainable technologies cannot be scaled up in a feasible way.

- The LBC's stringent requirements can cause some projects to take shortcuts in areas deemed not important in reflection to the LBC requirements, but that will have a significant impact on final design.

- The LBC is focused on the end number, rather than how a project got there. This can result in design decisions being made inefficiently while staying within the LBC requirements.

- The LBC focuses on many areas of sustainability rather than one.

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Sources:

https://living-future.org/lbc/ (accessed 4/17/19)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Building_Challenge (accessed 4/17/19)