CASE STUDY: http://living-future.org/case-study/ecosense
The Living Building Challenge is an international green building rating system, that is the brainchild of Jason McLennan, CEO of Cascadia Green Building Council, and International Living Building Institute. This system is the greenest rating system internationally, whose focus is to strive to ensure the built environment is regenerative to the ecosystems that we share and live within. Eco Sense achieved Petal Certification in October 2010, and presently (as of Sept 2011) is the greenest home rated by the greenest rating system ever created.
Learn about the Living building Challenge (LBC 2.0) from a presentation that Ann and Gord delivered to their municipal Council, staff, and community members on April 23rd, 2012. Presentation is customized for the District of Highlands. It’s a big file. Download here: You can also go right to the LBC website or even join the LBC community here. https://ilbi.org/
Living Building Challenge documents (a few of the many submitted from Eco-Sense for audit)
- Site PR01 – Old and new covenant – map of change to covenant
- Energy PR04 Prerequisite 04 – Net Zero Energy
- Materials PR06 Prerequisite 06 – construction carbon footprint and another CarbonCalcBairds done by Christina Goodvin, Engineer
Eco-Sense 
Which of the 16 prerequisites did you not achieve and why? In the case study on Living Building Challenges website there isn’t any information under the Equity tab. Looking at the new Net Zero Energy Building Certification through LBC would it be possible for this building to achieve this certification?
Hi Matt, We did not meet the following for the materials petal and Energy petal:
PR04 – net zero Energy. We are net zero electricity, but we use a propane cooke stove and use a wood gassification boiler to supplement the solar thermal as part of a combination DHW and space heating (in floor hydronic). NO COMBUSTION allowed for the LBC. Our family uses 90% less electricity per person than the average in our province.
PR07 – responsible industry. We used 90% sustainable wood (80% recycled). Must be 100%
PR08 – Appropriate Materials/Service Radius. Utilized bamboo matting for ceiling covering. Traveled too far.
PR09 – Leadership in Construction Waste. We built our entire home without a dumpster and just biweekly domestic garbage pick up and recycling. 1 can every 2 weeks for two families AND building the house. However we did not document.
Our project was the first registered completed project for the Living Building Challenge and the first audited. We were part of v1.3 and for the first version there were only 6 petals…no equity petal.
Are you planning a project?
Best,
Ann Baird
Thanks for writiing this