Pharos Applauds and Supports First Living Building Challenge Certified Projects

Congratulations to the first three projects to meet the Living Building Challenge℠ design standard for healthy sustainable buildings! This is an impressive accomplishment, coming less than four years after the Cascadia Green Building Council launched this ambitious high-bar standard, which requires not only excellent “beyond LEED” design, but a year of occupancy to prove that the operation of the building also meets the Challenge standards.

Washington University’s Tyson Living Learning Center (Eureka, MO) and the Omega Center for Sustainable Living (Rhinebeck, NY), earned 'Living' status and  Eco-Sense, (a private residence in Victoria, BC), earned partial program certification, or ‘Petal Recognition,’ for achieving four of the six stringent ‘Petals’ which represent the categories of impact that the Challenge addresses.

HBN has been a long-time supporter of the Challenge, consulting on the development of the chemical policy for materials and now providing a Living Building Challenge Red List Materials filter in Pharos  to help Challenge design teams find materials that don’t contain the targeted chemicals of concern. We are delighted to see project teams proving that the aspiration to build buildings that are healthy and environmentally-restorative can be realized today.
 

Tom Lent is a researcher with the Pharos Project and the policy director of the Healthy Building Network.

The Pharos Project, a project of the Healthy Building Network, connects you to a network of building professionals and manufacturers committed to transparency as a core value on the path to sustainability. Pharos is not a certification or label, it is information: the critical health and environmental data about the manufacture, use, and end of life of building materials specified and used every day.  All delivered in an easy to use web based tool. For more information go to www.pharosproject.net  www.healthybuilding.net.

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