The Living Building Challenge™ is an attempt to dramatically raise the bar from a paradigm of doing less harm to one in which we view our role as a steward and co-creator of a true Living Future. The Challenge defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment today and acts to rapidly diminish the gap between current limits and the end-game positive solutions we seek.

As such the program is a philosophy first, an advocacy tool second, and a certification program third. Within the larger Living Future Challenge framework that covers the creation of all human artifacts and edifices, the Living Building Challenge focuses on humanity’s most abundant creations—its buildings. It is in essence a unified tool for transformative thought, allowing us to envision a future that is Socially Just, Culturally Rich and Ecologically Restorative.