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Paths to High Performance Buildings:
Published in Michael Stiller, Quality Lighting for High Performance Buildings, 2020
Another, even more aggressive green building rating system is the Living Building Challenge. The Living Building Challenge, which was founded and developed by members of the Cascadia Green Building Council, is organized around seven performance areas: Site, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity, and Beauty. The requirements of this rating system are challenging and steep, and include net zero energy use and net zero water use. Most of us are familiar with the technologies that can contribute to a net zero energy building, including on-site photovoltaic and solar thermal systems, hydroelectric generation, wind power, and geothermal heating and cooling. Unfortunately, the technologies that contribute to achieving, or even approaching, net zero water use are less well known, and generally face greater resistance from regulatory agencies. They include greywater systems for sewage conveyance, rainwater harvesting, and on-site wastewater treatment via the use of eco-machines. Eco-machines are biological remediation systems that employ plants and bacteria to filter wastewater in the way a wetland does, allowing the wastewater to be cleaned and re-introduced into the ground water, thus creating a closed-loop system for water use that can reduce the need for expensive and energy-hungry centralized water and sewer systems. The Living Building Challenge differs from LEED in that certification is based on actual performance, not just modeled or anticipated performance, and is only awarded after a building project has been operational for at least twelve months.
Sustainability
Published in Terry Jacobs, Andrew A. Signore, Good Design Practices for GMP Pharmaceutical Facilities, 2016
There are several nonprofit organizations worldwide that promote sustainability in the design, construction, and operation of buildings. These organizations have developed tools that assist designers in tracking and monitoring building sustainability goals that are specific to a building and a site. The USGBC is best known for the development of the LEED rating system. The Green Building Initiative (GBI) is another nonprofit organization that has developed a web-based rating tool called Green Globes. The Energy Star program was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); it rates commercial buildings for energy efficiency and provides a percentile ranking system compared to similar buildings in the United States. The Living Building Challenge offers performance-based standards and a certification program for renovations and new construction.
Introduction
Published in Donald B. Corner, Jan C. Fillinger, Alison G. Kwok, Passive House Details, 2017
Donald B. Corner, Jan C. Fillinger, Alison G. Kwok
There are many comparative metrics for an ecological approach to design: Net zero source energy: Each building must generate one unit of energy for every unit it consumes throughout a year. Annual energy consumption includes the on-site usage, plus all of the primary energy needed to extract, generate, transmit, and distribute those units of energy to the site (Torcellini et al., 2006).Architecture 2030 Challenge: Climbing through a series of progressive benchmarks, all new buildings and major renovations shall be carbon neutral by 2030. No fossil fuel, greenhouse gas-emitting energy will be used to operate the building. This will be achieved through sustainable design strategies, on-site generation of renewable power, and/or limited purchase (20 percent maximum) of off-site renewable energy (Architecture 2030).Net zero emissions: The overall objective is to completely eliminate the effective carbon pollution of the planet. Carbon emissions due to buildings, and all other sources, must be drastically reduced. The remainder must be balanced by natural factors such as forest carbon sinks, and technologies of carbon capture and storage that keep the pollution from entering the atmosphere (The Carbon Reality Project).Living Building Challenge: The Living Building Challenge is a green building certification program with comprehensive measures tracking materials, resources, and performance attributes in the built environment. The current version (3.0) includes twenty design imperatives organized in seven per form ance categories called Petals: Place, Water, Energy, Health & Happi ness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty (Inter national Living Future Institute).
Selection of Core Indicators for the Sustainable Conservation of Built Heritage
Published in International Journal of Architectural Heritage, 2022
Joana Gonçalves, Ricardo Mateus, José Dinis Silvestre, Ana Pereira Roders, Graça Vasconcelos
The Living Building Challenge (LBC) is a commercial international building certification method applied in more than 25 countries worldwide. It was initially launched in 2006 by Cascadia Green Building Council (GBC) — a coalition between the Canada and US Green Building Councils. The idea behind the LBC was to improve the LEED rating system (from the US GBC) by moving “beyond merely being less bad and to become truly regenerative” (Living Future Institute 2019). Regenerative design is an emerging concept defined by Cole (2013) as a method that emphasises “a co-evolutionary, partnered relationship between humans and the natural environment”. This definition connects with that of sustainable conservation (Gonçalves, Mateus, and Silvestre 2019), as heritage is a co-evolutionary process of the environment, made of intangible, tangible and natural aspects. One of the main differences with other certification tools, such as LEED or BREEAM, is that LBC’s indicators are entirely focused on existing buildings and the assessment is based on the actual performance.