Creating sustainable futures/CSF101/Sustainability is possible/Living buildings

Originally developed and launched by the Cascadia Green Building Council in 2006, the Living Building Challenge is acknowledged as the world’s most progressive and stringent green building code. It poses the challenge of designing buildings as nature designs. How do you create a building that harvests all its own water, produces all its own energy, and manages all its own waste-water on-site. These are just 3 of the 7 requirements for a fully certified living building.

There are currently 3 projects that have received full certification under the Living Building Challenge, with 4 others having been partially certified. As at October 2014, there are 90 projects currently in some phase of design, construction or operation.

Video activity

Living Buildings for a Living Future (15:23)

1. Watch this short video of Jason F. McLennan, founder of the Living Building Challenge, explaining how this is leading to enormous change.

Discussion forum activity

The Future of Green Building. Ashoka Fellow Jason McLennan (2:13)

1. Watch this interview with Jason.
2. Consider these questions.
   • What can we learn from the Living Building Challenge approach that might be applied more broadly in other industries?
   • How do you think the Living Building Challenge might serve as a source of inspiration for other industries to aim for genuinely sustainable outcomes, rather than just better than business as usual?
   • What do you think are the major barriers to people undertaking an approach like the Living Building Challenge?
   • How might those barriers be overcome?
3. Add your comments to the Discussion Forum (look for the specific topic on this).