Living Building Challenge becoming more prominent in USA

Have you ever heard of Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OCSL)? It is going open on July 16, 2009 formally and as per observers, is at the bleeding edge of green building. Where is it situated? It’s located on the 195-acre campus of the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, an education and retreat center. There are, in point of fact, several notable features and it is on the verge of attaining LEED Platinum and may also be the first building in the realm of United States of America to satisfy the requirements of the Living Building Challenge.

OCSL had its commencement in 2005 and the plan, during the initial years, was to change the aging septic system that had been there since the land was used as a summer camp in the 1950s. As Robert “Skip” Backus, OCSL’s CEO puts it, “it’s not just about compact florescent light bulbs, it’s not just about recycling, it’s about looking at what are the systems and the ways of engineering that are available to us now so that we can go to a higher level of sustainability — one that is truly in balance with the natural environment.”

It should be noted that lots of green features do adorn the building and these include Net zero energy use due to photovoltaic array; Net zero water use; High fly-ash content concrete; Green roof; Rain gardens; Automatic windows to vent out hot air; Recycled content steel throughout; Closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling; locally sourced FSC certified construction materials.

Let’s focus on Living Building Challenge (LBC) then. The entire concept was conceived by Jason F. McLennan and has been operated by the Cascadia Green Building Council. What was the real intention behind construction of the same? The basic goal was not to compete with LEED but to surpass in every respect. The main objective of LEED is to make the reinforced environment more sustainable but Challenge takes it even further to sketch requirements for buildings to take nothing at all from the environment.