Living Building Challenge

The Omega Center for Sustainable Living is a pioneering project in the Living Building Challenge. A program of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, the Living Building Challenge is attempting to push the boundaries of green building and sustainable architecture to help our society move quickly to a state of balance between natural and built environments.

Taking a holistic approach to green building, the Living Building Challenge requires buildings to be informed by their eco-region's characteristics; generate all of their own energy with renewable resources; capture and treat all of their water; operate efficiently; and be designed for maximum beauty. There are six performance areas—site, energy, materials, water, indoor quality, and beauty & inspiration—and certain criteria to be met in each category in order for a building to be designated a Living Building.

The Living Building Challenge aims to facilitate changes in the green building industry by examining the best knowledge and practices available today in sustainable architecture-including design, sourcing, building codes, economics, consumer expectations, etc.-and creating a benchmark of the highest level of sustainability currently possible in the marketplace. It is a challenge to building owners, architects, engineers, and design professionals to build in a way that moves us toward sustainable architecture and a truly sustainable future.

The Omega Center for Sustainable Living is one of the first projects to participate in the Living Building Challenge. We have been working closely with the Cascadia Region Green Building Council and anticipate being one of the first projects in the United States to be designated a Living Building.

"Omega Institute, a pioneering adopter of the Living Building Challenge, is helping to change the way we design, build, and operate buildings by creating the Omega Center for Sustainable Living. Through its leadership, Omega is providing us with hope and guidance for a sustainable future."

-Jason F. McLennan, founder of the Living Building Challenge