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Big Goal:

Big Goal: To create "green" buildings that are sustainable in a local and global sense
Your goal: to design your own green building

Sustainability: "Thinking of forever"
or "safe for all species for all time"
Many groups involved: LEED, LBC, UN
Example of a green home:
LEED: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

Issues with LEED:
LBC: The Living Building Challenge
  • Created by the Cascadia sub-group of the US Green Building Council (USGBC)
  • Stringent rules about materials sourcing, energy and water
  • No part of the project can involve materials that are toxic in production, use or disposal
  • All materials in the project must be recycled
  • 6 petals to be certified (pass-fail):
    • Site
    • Energy
    • Materials
    • Water
    • Indoor quality
    • Beauty and inspiration


Download file "Living-Building-Challenge-1.3-Standard.pdf"
From LBC spec 1.3, used for the HPA Energy Lab:
At the heart of the Living Building Challenge is the belief that our society needs to quickly find a state of balance between the natural and built environments. The release of the Living Building Challenge is an act of optimism and faith in the marketplace to reach high-level goals and project teams are already responding: In the short time since it was unveiled at Greenbuild in 2006, dozens of building owners, designers, developers and contractors throughout North America and around the world have embarked on the Challenge.

The purpose of the Living Building Challenge is straightforward – to define the highest measure of sustainability possible in the built environment based on the best current thinking – recognizing that ‘true sustainability’ is not yet possible. The Living Building Challenge is by definition difficult to achieve. Although facets of this standard have been accomplished in numerous projects around the world, to date, no single project has integrated the Challenge in its entirety. With this standard, the ILBI aims to encourage dialogue on the necessary evolution of the building industry and engender support for the first pilot projects, until more and more Living Buildings emerge.

Two rules govern the standard:

  1. All elements of the Living Building Challenge are mandatory. Many of the requirements have temporary exceptions to acknowledge current market limitations. These are listed in the footnotes of each section. Exceptions will be modified or removed as the market changes.
  2. Living Building designation is based on actual, rather than modeled or anticipated, performance. Therefore, buildings must be operational for at least twelve consecutive months prior to evaluation.

LBC 1.3 petals (circa 2008)

Site

Site selection

    • Cannot be near wetlands, dunes, old growth forest or virgin prairie
    • Cannot be on prime farmland
    • Cannot be within the 100 year floodplain
  • Limits to growth
    • May only be built on greyfield or brownfield
  • Habitat exchange
    • For each acre, equal land must be set aside for 100 years as habitat exchange

Energy

  • Annual net zero energy

Materials

  • Materials red list
    • Cadmium
    • Chlorinated Polyethylene and Chlorosulfonated Polyethlene2
    • Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
    • Chloroprene (Neoprene)
    • Formaldehyde (added)22
    • Halogenated Flame Retardants2
    • Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs)
    • Lead2
    • Mercury2
    • Petrochemical Fertilizers and Pesticides26
    • Phthalates
    • Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)2
    • Wood treatments containing Creosote, Arsenic or Pentachlorophenol
  • Carbon offset
  • FSC wood
  • Materials/services radius
    • Ideas 12k miles
    • Renewable energy tech 9k miles
    • Assemblies 3k miles
    • Consultants 1.5k miles
    • Low density materials 1k miles (1000)
    • Medium density materials 0.5k miles (500)
    • High density materials 0.25 miles (250)
  • Landfill diversion
    • Metals 95%
    • Paper 95%
    • Soil 100%
    • Foam, insulation 90%
    • All others 80%

Water

  • Net zero water: catchment or closed loop
  • Storm water discharge

Indoor Quality

  • Operable windows, fresh air and daylight
  • Healthy air
    • Internal and external dirt control
    • Ventilated bathrooms and closets
    • No VOC paints, adhesives or finishes
    • Non smoking
  • Ventilation
    • ACH minimum (air changes per hour)
    • OSA minimum (outside air flow)
    • CO2 monitoring max 600 ppm
    • CO2 calibrated outside air 400 ppm
    • 15 cfm per person x number of occupants

Beauty and Inspiration

  • Beauty and spirit
    • Celebration of culture, spirit and place
    • Sense of place (‘Ike)
    • Functional integration
  • Inspiration and Education
    • Ed materials about performance and operation public access
    • Share solutions, motivate change
    • Public opening one day per year
    • Educate public about LBC
    • See also LEED 2.0 for Education specifications


LEED for Schools (circa 2008)

To achieve certification, projects choose which credits within the system are right for their project. Teams first decide what is most important for their community and local environment and then apply strategies to earn points across several sustainability topics, including:

» INTEGRATIVE THINKING: promotes reaching across disciplines to incorporate diverse team members during the pre-design period

» ENERGY: focuses on reducing energy demand through efficiency, then rewards renewable energy.

» WATER: addresses indoor use, outdoor use, specialized uses and whole-building-level water metering

» MATERIALS AND WASTE: encourages using sustainable building materials and reducing waste and includes a special focus on usage, life-cycle and transparency

» LOCATION AND TRANSPORTATION: includes an emphasis on advanced performance metrics to reward projects within relatively dense areas, near diverse uses, with access to a variety of transportation options, or on sites with development constraints

» SUSTAINABLE SITES: rewards decisions about the environment surrounding the building, and emphasizes the vital relationships among buildings, ecosystems and ecosystem services

» HEALTH AND HUMAN EXPERIENCE: focuses on providing high-quality indoor environments that enhance productivity, decrease absenteeism and improve the building’s value

» INNOVATION: recognizes innovative building features and sustainable building practices and strategies

» REGIONAL IMPACTS: encourages project teams to focus on their local environmental priorities
Based on the number of points achieved, a project receives 1 of 4 LEED rating levels: Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum.


HPA Energy Lab was the first in Hawaii to earn platinum, second platinum ever awarded