Practice Exercise - Module 3

List your three or four guiding design goals using this format for each goal:

I want to achieve the Core Certification for the Living Building Challenge. I am deeply passionate about sustainability and leaving a positive impact on the environment and the people through the things I create, thus this goal will root all other goals. My bigger goal is to reach petal certification. To achieve the Core Certification - I must hit the 10 Core LBC Imperatives (these will be my goals). These Core Imperatives are my goals (many of the writing is taken from their program manual)

Goal 1: Ecology of Place - encourage ecological regeneration and function

• Measure:  this will be hard to measure → considering the location will be in a city→ attempt to have green space. If I was truly building this → document site and community conditions prior to start of work then demonstrate how I am contributing positively to ecology or restoration.
• Targets:
• minimally acceptable value: introduce a new green space into the site
• desired / target value: have more green space than was originally there, introduce new species and ecosystems
• Strategies:
• Green roofs with gardens that encourage pollinators that are suffering in the local ecoclogy
• Bigger, more of a stretch strategy: vertical farming

Goal 2: Human-Scaled Living (walkable-pedestrian oriented design)

• Measure:  How people are arriving at the space → would want the majority to be walking or biking or public transit
• Targets:
• Reduce the use SOV trips and fossil fuel based vehicles by 30%
• Contribute to creation of walkable, pedestrian-oriented communities
• enhance pedestrian routes
• transit subsidy for occupants of project
• encourage biking and public transport
• biking racks
• Human scale that is appropriate for the neighborhood
• Strategies:
• Sufficient, secure, weather-protected storage for bikes
• No parking lot
• Make the site extremely walkable
• Smaller scale building - not a huge tower

Goal 3: Responsible Water Use

• Measure:  Must use less water for the project than a baseline regional building of the same type by 50%.
• Targets:
• Supply 75% of the projects water needs
• Net Positive water
• supply 100% of the projects water needs
• Strategies:
• Captured precipitation and recycling used project water
• Address grey and black water through on-site treatment and management through reuse, closed-loop system, or infiltration

Goal 4: Energy+Carbon Reduction

• Measure:  70% energy reduction of energy from an equivalent building baseline and use on-site renewables.
• Targets:
• Maximize passive design and include photovoltaics while choosing materials with lower carbon footprint
• Net Positive Energy and Carbon Positive
• Strategies:
• Passive design
• orientation
• daylighting
• Emphasis on south facing windows
• thermal mass
• ventilation
• thermal comfort
• Photovoltaics
• Materials with lower than average carbon footprint

Goal 5: Healthy Interior Environment

• Measure:  Measure air quality, daylight, and views
• Targets:
• Comply with ASHRAE standard, provide views of outside and daylight for 75% of regularly occupied spaces
• Access to views and daylight from 95% of regularly occupied spaces
• Strategies:
• Air filtration systems and ventilation
• Lots of strategically placed operable windows to account for daylight, views, and ventilation

Goal 6: Responsible Materials

• Measure:  the metric that you’ll use to measure this goal
• Targets:
• 50% of the wood products must be FSC, salvaged or harvested on site
• 20% or more of the materials construction must come from 500 kilometers of site
• Divert 80% of waste from landfill
• Strategies:
• Use wood as my main building material and attempt to source locally salvaged material
• include recycling and compost bins during occupancy
• be strategic about construction process
• Look at big ticket items that go to landfill and try to divert these

Goal 7: Universal Access

• Measure:  equal access for every member of the public, with reasonable measures to ensure everyone can benefit
• Targets:
• enhance public realm through design measures and features that are accessible to all members of society
• accessible to people with disabilities
• Strategies:
• have an outdoor garden that is accessible to the public
• met the ADA

Goal 8: Inclusion

• Measure: measure job creation in local community and business development
• Targets:
• create stable, safe, and high-paying job opportunities for people in the local community
• support local diverse businesses through hiring, purchasing, and workforce development practices
• Strategies:
• if we were planning construction- I would hire a local construction firm
• I would hire people from the community to work in the space, also hiring local businesses/consultants for the gardens.

Goal 9: Beauty and Biophilia

• Measure:  how many plants are on the site
• Targets:
• Have an immense amount of green space
• Every room connected to nature in some way
• Strategies:
• Green roofs, gardens, greenhouse
• potential vertical farming

Goal 10: Education and Inspiration

• Measure:  how much we do to teach about the sustainability features of the building/process
• Targets:
• Teach all occupants about the building
• Teach all occupants about sustainable design
• Strategies:
• Highlight each feature and why it is important
• Create interactive features to encage users