Walls & Ceilings Architect/October 2007

BEYOND PLATINUM The highest LEED certification level is the much-coveted “LEED Platinum.” If the Cascadia Regional Green Building Council (CRGBC)– –a chapter of both the USGBC and the CaGBC (Canadian Green Building Council) has its way, platinum LEED will have to take a back-seat to an even higher certiﬁcation level. At Greenbuild ’06, the CRGBC issued a “Living Building Challenge” which would become the pinnacle and holy grail of green building recognition. The CRGBC deﬁ nes their Living Building Challenge as: “To deﬁ ne a true measure of sustainability in the built environment based on the best current thinking possible.” Certiﬁcation under the living building mantle will include 16 prerequisites but no credits nor will it include Olympic-style “levels” of certiﬁcation: Certified (formerly Bronze), Silver, Gold and Platinum, as are applied to the LEED programs. Either an applicant meets or does not meet the Living Building requirements. However, to achieve this higher standard an applicant will be subjected to a more rigorous review process than even LEED platinum currently requires. As well, the certiﬁcation will be performance rather than prescriptive-based. Though more difﬁcult to document, a performance basis allows for more creativity and ﬂexibility than the more easily documented but more rigid, inﬂexible prescriptive basis. Not intending to make the living building a competitor to LEED, the CRGBC is ready and willing to work in collaboration with the USBGC and CaGBC to achieve this higher standard collectively rather than independently. At Greenbuild ’06, 12 developers expressed interest in the living building challenge and, in general, interest in it was high. One aspect of the program will be the retention of award of living building certiﬁcation until the building/facility has been in operation for one full year. The CRGBC expects to certify the first living building sometime in 2009. Though too involved to describe in detail here, prerequisites for living building certiﬁcation will include: 1) Responsible site selection 2) Limits to growth 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) Habitat exchange Net-zero energy Materials red list Construction carbon footprint Responsible industry Appropriate materials and services radius 9) Construction waste 10) Net-zero water 11) Sustainable water discharge 12) Civilized work environment 13) Healthy air & source control 14) Ventilation 15) Beauty & spirit 16) Inspiration & education Next time, in part two, we’ll continue with our look at what’s been going on with LEED. We’ll see how the USGBC plans to meet its stated goals with volume certification and we’ll also take a look at what’s been happening with the LEED for Homes (LEED-H) initiative. W&C Jeffrey M. Syken is a consulting estimator in private practice. He is a lecturer on the subject of trade estimating, as well as the author of a book on the subject entitled “Principles of Trade Estimating” available from Bni Building News. Top 5 www.wconline.com reasons to visit Valuable information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, anywhere in the world Find your favorite article in archives and forward to a friend Can’t ﬁnd what you’re looking for? Use our searchable Buyer’s Guides Easy access to the latest breaking news in your industry Get more information online by subscribing to our FREE enewsletters October 2007 | Walls & Ceilings Architect | 39 http://www.wconline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Walls & Ceilings Architect/October 2007

Contents Trade News Silver Certiﬁed Airtight The Men of Steel Thinking Thermal Firestop 101 ICFs Create a Tight Envelope The Finish Line The Green Thumb Cracking the Code

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