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About Living Building Leader
The Living Building ChallengeTM is the Cascadia Region Green Building Council's call to the design and construction community to pursue true sustainability in the built environment. Imagine a building that generates all of its own energy with renewable non-toxic resources, captures and treats all of its water, and operates efficiently and for maximum beauty. Now imagine an industry ready to design and construct such buildings: Living Buildings!
The Living Building LeaderTM program consists of a series of intensive, advanced 'virtual learning' sessions in green building topics, taught by experts in the diverse fields that underpin the multidisciplinary field that is green building.
Who should enroll
Intended for the green building practitioner, the goal of the Living Building Leader program is to outfit professionals with the technical and leadership skills needed to create Living Buildings. Professionals in the rapidly maturing field of green building will find the depth and breadth of content contained in Living Building Leader sessions useful for both providing critical knowledge needed to actualize green buildings, as well as a powerful way to distinguish themselves in the field.
Note: This is an advanced program intended for professionals with previous applied experience with green building. Please see registration for details on expected knowledge level.
How it works
The Living Building Leader program engages architects, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, green consultants and contractors in the six Petals of the Living Building Challenge and provides the tools and technical training necessary to pursue Living Building status. These 3-hour sessions, taught by experts in their respective fields, provide the conceptual underpinnings, direct practical knowledge and critical personal and organizational skills to create transformational building types.
Participants may enroll in a single session, independently craft their own learning experience, or aim for full Living Building Leader designation by completing the required 36 Living Building Leader sessions. Participants have up to three years to complete the 36 required sessions. (Sessions are offered frequently enough to allow for completion in as little as one twelve month period; given work and scheduling issues, it is expected most professionals will complete the coursework in a two year period.)
Beyond successful completion of the 36 sessions (defined as viewing all sessions and passing each session exam with a minimum score of 80%), Living Building Candidates must demonstrate:
- LEED Accredited Professional status.
- Five years of applied experience in the field of green building.
The curriculum is divided into seven units, each requiring a minimum number of credits. (Each credit is equivalent to three hours of instruction.)
Credit distribution by Petal
| Petal |
Minimum credits required |
| Site | 4 |
| Energy | 8 |
| Materials | 7 |
| Water | 4 |
| Indoor quality | 5 |
| Beauty + inspiration | 3 |
| Process + leadership |
5 |
| Total credits |
36 |
Session locations
To reduce our carbon footprint and that of participants and to allow for global participation, sessions are offered via online on-demand video playback. Occasional in-person sessions, such as Pharos workshops, will be offered within the Cascadia region.
Session dates and times
2008 sessions are being developed in groups. After much feedback from attendees, Cascadia has retired the live, online session format for a pre-recorded video playback approach. The 2008 sessions will be deployed in two groups, one in October 2008 and one in December 2008. The remaining sessions in the Living Building Leader stable will be developed and released beginning in 2009. Participants may take sessions in any order. (There are a few sessions where sequenced learning is highly encouraged but not required.)
How much?
Each session is $75 for Cascadia members (see membership) and $90 for non-members.
Cascadia also offers a 10% discount for offices purchasing sessions for three or more staff at one time. Please contact us to receive a discount coupon for the bundled sessions or for multiple staff prior to enrolling in your sessions. The coupons must be applied at purchase.
Note that Cascadia membership is separate from Living Building Community membership; the $15 per session discount applies specifically to Cascadia members. The 10% multiple employee discount and the bundled discount applies to all. We suggest becoming a Cascadia member to enjoy discounts on both Living Building Leader sessions and Living Building Community membership, as well as discounts on other Cascadia sponsored events, conferences and educational opportunities.