First Projects Certified Under Living Building Challenge

The wait is over: the first projects have been certified as meeting the stringent terms of the Living Building Challenge (LBC; for background, see “The Living Building Challenge: Can It Really Change the World?” EBN June 2009). 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. Additional time passed as data and other aspects of certification were verified.