STRUCTURE + APPLICABILITY
The Living Building Challenge (LBC) consists of seven performance categories, or “Petals”: Place, Water, Energy, Health + Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty. Each Petal is subdivided into Imperatives. There are 20 Imperatives spread throughout the seven Petals: 10 Core Imperatives that address the fundamental tenets of each Petal and 10 more that push performance into the realm of positive impact. The Core Imperatives are not only integral to LBC, but together they also comprise the requirements of the Core certification and form the foundation for Petal certification.
Proven Performance
Living Building Challenge compliance is based on actual, rather than modeled or anticipated, performance. Therefore, projects must demonstrate compliance with Imperative requirements over at least 12 consecutive months of operation to verify performance. See additional information under Registration and Certification Overview below.
Holistic
The Living Building Challenge is a holistic standard. To achieve Living certification, the requirements for all applicable Imperatives within the certification being pursued must be met.
CERTIFICATION OPTIONS
Living Certification
Living certification is for projects striving for the highest level of health, equity, sustainability, and regenerative design. A project achieves Living certification by attaining all Imperatives assigned to its Typology. All 20 Imperatives are required for New Buildings. Other Typologies are exempt from certain Imperatives based on the Typology scope (see Table 1).
Core Certification
The Core certification pathway lays the holistic foundation for building performance that can be considered sustainable. It requires achievement of the 10 Core LBC Imperatives (see Table 1).
Petal Certification
Petal certification is for projects that want to dive deeply into one or more particular issue areas, or Petals, of the Living Building Challenge. This certification requires, at minimum, the achievement of all 10 Core LBC Imperatives, in addition to achievement of all Imperatives in one or more of the Water, Energy, or Materials Petals.
SCOPE-DEPENDENT REQUIREMENTS
For Building Renovation, Interior, and Landscape + Infrastructure Typologies, the requirements for certain Imperatives are dependent on the scope that defines the project Typology, as indicated in Table 1. Additional information regarding these scope-dependent requirements is provided for relevant Imperatives in the Compliance Details. Table 1 identifies which Imperatives must be met for each Typology.
Table 1. LBC Imperative Summary Table
APPLICABILITY AND REGIONALITY
LBC Imperatives can be applied to almost every conceivable building project with a construction scope, of any scale and in any location, be it a new building or an existing structure needing renovation. For additional information on identifying the project type, see the Typology section. Living Building Challenge projects can be built in any climate zone anywhere in the world—as evidenced by the unique array of projects already certified or currently underway in many countries around the globe.
Regional solutions are manifested in all Living Building Challenge projects due to a number of variables, including climate factors, building characteristics, and community context. For example, becoming water-independent in the desert demands the evolution of a project’s design to emulate a cactus instead of a tree. The built environment will be richer, and the stress on our resources will lessen as more and more projects focus on appropriate responses to place. Where they may be needed, we have created regional equivalencies based on feedback from projects worldwide so that reference standards appropriate to that locale can be used.
REGISTRATION AND CERTIFICATION OVERVIEW
REGISTER A PROJECT
The first step to becoming eligible for ILFI certification is registering a project. Once a project is registered, it is then assigned an ILFI project coach who can help answer questions during the project design and construction phases. Note that the date of registration date is important as a project is held to the requirements published in the Program Manual at the date of its registration.
Information about the registration process and fees can be found on the ILFI website and in a detailed description of the registration and certification processes that can be found here.
Multiple Buildings
ILFI certifications can benefit clients working at scale, whether that means replicating multiple buildings in a single development project or considering a portfolio of several projects over time. With multiple buildings, there is opportunity to create efficiencies within the certification process. ILFI is open to working with project teams to define an appropriate certification scope and process.
Project teams interested in learning more about certifying multiple buildings or working on the portfolio scale are encouraged to contact special.projects@living-future.org.
CERTIFICATION
The certification process involves two audits, the Ready Audit and the Final Audit. The Ready Audit takes place upon completion of project construction and after submission of all required documentation. A successful Ready Audit results in a “Ready” designation that may be used by the project team to highlight progress toward the intended certification. The Final Audit occurs after completion of a 12-month performance period with continuous occupancy and submission of all required documentation, including performance data. The Final Audit results in a Final Certification Ruling.
The Documentation Requirements in the Compliance Detail sections of this Program Manual identify the documentation required for each of the two audits.
More detailed information on the certification process is available here.
