Seattle: First City in the U.S to Incentivize Living Buildings with Pilot Program

On October 7, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray signed legislation to continue the Living Building Pilot Program until 2025. The updated Living Building program legislation expands on a pilot program started in 2009 and increases the number of buildings that can participate to twenty. There are new provisions and adjustments in the legislation that align better with city and state laws, as well as streamline building codes to incentivize developers on adopting regenerative building practices.

The Living Building Pilot Program (LBPP) applies to existing and new construction projects that pursue the Living Building Challenge—the world’s most rigorous sustainable building program. The Living Building Challenge calls for the creation of building projects at all scales that operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature's architecture - projects that generate all of their own energy with renewable resources, that capture and treat all of their water, and operate efficiently with maximum beauty and addressing equity.