The Guidebook is meant to be used in conjunction with the Petal Handbooks, which provide additional essential detail on compliance requirements and documentation for certification under the Living Building Challenge 4.0 or Core Green Building Standards. The Petal Handbooks are accessible online with ILFI membership.
The rules that govern certification compliance are established through the Standards, the Petal Handbooks, and this Guidebook. The Guidebook addresses topics that apply across Petals and supplements the Petal Handbook in providing essential compliance details. Project teams must follow all rules in place at the time of their project registration with ILFI. Rules for a given standard established after a project’s registration date may be followed at the team’s discretion.
Both the Petal Handbooks and this Guidebook may be informed by the Request for Ruling process. The Request for Ruling process is the means by which project teams request approval for a compliance method that is either identified as requiring pre-approval in the Petal Handbooks or the Guidebook, or that doesn’t conform with the guidance as written in the Petal Handbook or the Guidebook. More information on the submission process and contents is available via the linked text above.
Where text in this Guidebook references Imperatives common to both Core and LBC, the numbers used in the respective Standards will be cited, followed by the Imperative name, which does not change between the Standards. The LBC numbers are preceded by the letter I and the Core numbers are preceded by the letter C, as in the example: I05/C3, Responsible Water Use.
