By Kevin Brooks
Part one in a two part series
By now, we are all familiar with the USGBC’s LEED® rating system. Since its founding in 1993, the USGBC has grown close to 20,000 members and has a presence in more than 30 countries. Indeed, the fundamental LEED Version 2.0 launched in the early 2000s has evolved into nine different rating systems covering all building types, including not only commercial construction but also homes, neighborhood development, schools, healthcare, and retail space. With more than 22,000 LEED certified projects, including over 12,000 homes and comprising in excess of 1.5 billion square feet of space, the USGBC’s LEED green building rating system has become the accepted standard for implementing (and ultimately rating) the sustainability of a building’s design, construction, and ongoing operation and maintenance. 
As the USGBC has grown, the LEED rating system has continued to evolve. Consistency and integration have been brought to the different rating systems, and individual prerequisites and credits have been further refined to continue to promote the latest sustainable materials and technologies, as well as afford increased attention to the most significant environmental issues, such as water efficiency and carbon emissions. With the wide-found acceptance and popularity of the LEED rating system, other green building rating systems and initiatives have also come to the market place, including the 2030 Challenge and the Living Building Challenge, as well as a variety of energy efficiency rating systems such as the federal government’s Energy Star and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineer’s (ASHRAE) Standards for the Design of High Performance and Green Buildings.
Living Building Challenge
Administered by the International Living Building Institute (www.ilbi.org), this green building rating system was formally launched at the USGBC’s 2006 annual GreenBuild conference by one of USGBC’s member chapters: the Cascadia Region Green Building Council. In summary, the Living Building Challenge is not only a framework that utilizes the most advanced metrics for validating the sustainability of the built environment, but also an advocacy tool for promoting a symbiotic relationship between people and the built environment.
The metrics used in the certification program are progressive: a building’s energy needs are required to come solely from on-site renewable energy sources and the building’s water demand must be met from water collected on site – from either collected precipitation or closed-loop water recycling. In addition, the Living Building Challenge also draws on new urbanism applications such as the urban to rural transect urban planning and smart growth model.
Stay tuned for Part II of this series where we’ll discuss how the Living Building Challenge differs from LEED and the necessary requirements for the Living Building Challenge.
For more information on the Living Building Challange, please visit the International Living Future Institute Website at http://ilbi.org
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