Design Balance -

The Living Building Challenge concept is simple and profound, though not easy.  It defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today and seeks to diminish the gap between current limits and ideal solutions. The LBC certification program is administered by the International Living Futures Institute and covers all building types.  It is a tool for transformative design that  envisions a future that is 'Socially Just, Culturally Rich and Ecologically Restorative'.

The Living Building Challenge is comprised of seven performance areas, or ‘Petals’: Site, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity and Beauty. Petals are subdivided into a total of twenty Imperatives, each of which focuses on a specific sphere of influence.

The imperatives work like prerequisites, all are required.  Requirements such as net-zero energy and water get at the ultimate goal for sustainable building and site design --- it is not just less bad, uses no more than it takes and has the potential to be restorative.  Download Living Building Challenge 2.0 document to learn more

We are currently working on two Living Building Challenge projects:  The Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Visitor Center in Lovell, Wyoming for the National Park Service, and the Alternative Energy Center for Eastern Washington University.