Living Building Challenge 2.0 Released

The International Living Buildings Institute and Cascadia Green Building Council have overhauled the Living Building Challenge (LBC), releasing version 2.0 at the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild conference in Phoenix. LBC is known for its unbending principles and all-prerequisite structure (see

EBN June 2009).

The new version consolidates some of the old prerequisites (now called “imperatives”) and adds six new ones: urban agriculture, car-free living, biophilia, human scale and humane places, democracy and social justice, and rights to nature. The last three imperatives form a new section that deals with equity issues; the intent behind the section is to foster communities “that allow equitable access to all people regardless of physical abilities, age, or socioeconomic status,” according to the LBC document. In general, the changes to LBC reflect a desire to extend the system beyond single buildings to address environmental and social issues at a larger scale. More information is available at www.ilbi.org.