The Living Building Challenge has been selected as the winner of the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, the annual design science competition named "Socially-Responsible Design's Highest Award" by Metropolis Magazine. The Buckminster Fuller Challenge awards $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a holistic, systems-based solution that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems.
The Living Building Challenge is administered by the International Living Future Institute and was created by Institute CEO, Jason F. McLennan. It calls for the creation of building projects at all scales (from single-room renovations to whole communities) that operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature's architecture.
To achieve certification, a project must meet 20 rigorous Imperatives (including net-zero energy, waste and water) over a minimum of 12 months of continuous occupancy. The Institute certified the first projects to fully achieve the Living Building Challenge in October 2010, proving that the Challenge is attainable now, using existing technology. Approximately 140 more projects, spread across eight countries and twenty-eight U.S. states, are currently in progress. Living Building Challenge Ambassadors, skilled volunteers dedicated to advancing the Challenge in their home communities, are active in twenty-one countries.
The Living Building Challenge was chosen from a pool of 122 of entries from around the world. +
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