SEATTLE, May 17, 2022 – The International Living Future Institute announced the 2022 Living Future Heroes, along with the winner of the Stephen R. Kellert Biophilic Design Award and newly certified building projects, as Living Future 2022: Restoration + Justice came to a close. The Impact Celebration caps two weeks of virtual programming with leaders of the regenerative building movement.
“It is fundamentally necessary to have a large and passionate community of advocates showing up to push for a Living Future,” said Lindsay Baker, CEO of the Institute. “The award winners, Living Future Heroes and teams behind the certified projects are all leaders in a strong and growing movement that brings strength in numbers.”
The Living Future Hero Award was created to acknowledge and celebrate individuals in the regenerative design community who have dedicated significant time and effort to advancing a Living Future, which is socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative. Heroes exceed expectations in environmental advocacy, champion Living Future projects and products, and share this vision with their peers. The 2022 Living Future Heroes are:
- Sonja Bochart, Founder, Sonja Bochart Well Being + Design for being a powerful advocate for a Living Future and biophilic design as a designer, speaker, educator and writer.
- Heidemarie Bonilla de Cienfuegos, Architect, B100 arquitectos for pushing sustainability in El Salvador through education, projects, regulations, and the El Salvador Green Building Council.
- Arthur Clarke, Director, Sustainability & Impact, HTMX Industries for being a champion of a Living Future across organizations and collaboratives at the national and international levels.
- Bruno Deraedt, General Manager, Leading Architect & Engineer, BAST architects & engineers for leading development of a Living Future in Belgium and across Europe.
- Mark Edlen, CEO, Edlen & Co for developing more deep green buildings than any other commercial developer, showing the market that they can earn a good rate of return.
- Thulani Vuyo Kuzwayo, Director, PaperThinkLAB for building a movement in the Global South as a Living Future Ambassador, and collaborative and nonprofit leader.
- Juan Rovalo, Senior Ecologist and Integrated Design Specialist, Biohabitats, Inc. for hundreds of projects in 10 countries that integrate ecology into design and planning processes.
- Paul Schwer, President, PAE for building a firm that champions a Living Future, exemplified in the Bullitt Center, Rocky Mountain Institute, and the company’s new headquarters.
- Kate Turpin, Director, Design Performance, Google for raising the level of ambition for building- and district-scale projects through application of Materials and Water Petal certification.
In line with the Institute’s recently released strategic plan, these leaders are helping to envision a Living Future and show that it works better in practice and policy. They demonstrate through their actions that the building industry can transform far faster and more radically than many assume. By aiming for truly “good” buildings, rather than incremental improvements alone, the 2022 Living Future Heroes show that we can make progress far faster and in more transformational ways.
The Stephen R. Kellert Biophilic Design Award acknowledges Stephen’s legacy as a pioneer in articulating and applying biophilic design principles to the built environment. His advocacy has encouraged widespread adoption of the practice of design for human-nature connection.
The award is in recognition of achievements in the built environment, including buildings, interiors, and communities, that demonstrate the principles and benefits of biophilic design.
The 2022 Stephen R. Kellert Biophilic Design Award winner is the JR Kumamoto Railway Station Building in Kumamoto, Japan. Embodying Kumamoto’s uniqueness, the building serves as a symbol of the recovery from the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. The facility’s centerpiece is the “Boken no Mori” (“Adventure Garden”), a large indoor multi-floor garden of water and greenery that extends from the ground to the seventh floor. The atrium is stepped to allow natural light inside, while dozens of plants native to Japan are arranged in an environment optimized via digital simulation.
In addition to announcing the award, the Institute also released a free Biophilic Design Toolkit and announced the first-of-its-kind Foundations of Biophilic Design Certificate at Living Future 2022.
18 building projects were honored for achieving certification under the International Living Future Institute’s rigorous programs:
- Cope Environmental Center, Centerville, IN – Living Certified
- The MAC Lodge at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, Finland, MN – Living Certified
- 237 Moffett Park Drive, Sunnyvale, CA – Petal Certified (Materials)
- Fort Bradshaw Renovation, Williamstown, MA – Petal Certified (Materials)
- Mohawk + Daltile Toronto Showroom, Toronto, ON, Canada – Petal Certified (Materials)
- PCC Bellevue, Bellevue, WA – Petal Certified (Materials)
- PCC West Seattle, Seattle, WA – Petal Certified (Materials)
- WRNS Seattle Office, Seattle, WA – Petal Certified (Materials)
- Archimania’s Office, Memphis, TN – Dual Certified: Zero Carbon and Zero Energy Certified
- ARCC East County Branch Office and Archives, Santee, CA – Zero Energy Certified
- County of San Diego, Borrego Springs Library, Borrego Springs, CA – Zero Energy Certified
- Creekside Community High School, Tigard, OR – Zero Energy Certified
- Drumlin Farm, Lincoln, MA – Zero Energy Certified
- Kaiser Santa Rosa Medical Office Building 6, Santa Rosa, CA – Zero Energy Certified
- Rose Villa – The Oaks, Portland, CA – Zero Energy Certified
- Success High School, Woodburn, OR – Zero Energy Certified
- Tilal Al Ghaf Pavilion, Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Zero Energy Certified
- Westwood Hills Nature Center, St. Louis Park, MN – Zero Energy Certified
Another eight projects have achieved Ready Designation by completing the Ready Audit after construction. These projects will undergo a Final Audit after a 12-month performance period:
- Arch Nexus SLC, Salt Lake City, UT – Living Ready
- Nexus Builds 2020, Salt Lake City, UT – Living Ready
- Inspire at Russell W Young Building, Seattle, WA – Petal Ready (Energy)
- Amazon Fresh North Seattle Store, Seattle, WA – Zero Carbon Ready
- GreenA Consultants HQ, Singapore, Singapore – Zero Carbon Ready
- Microsoft Silicon Valley, Mountain View, CA – Zero Carbon Ready
- Navigate Office Center, St. Louis, MO – Zero Energy Ready
- PG&E Davis T-line Fab Shop, Davis, CA – Zero Energy Ready
These projects represent a dramatic increase in momentum, scale, and complexity for the world’s most advanced, holistic performance standards for buildings. With 170 certified projects and 552 registered projects, the International Living Future Institute is making waves across 39 countries.
The International Living Future Institute also celebrated the positive actions of its community from this past year in advancing the materials market and making more equitable workplaces. Assa Abloy, Crossville, Humanscale, Industrial Louvers, and Superior Essex achieved a combined 31 Living Product certifications, which is the world’s most advanced standard for healthy, sustainable products. The Institute gave a special shout out to Humanscale, which finalized 26 certifications in 2021.
Along with these Living Products, the Institute celebrated the milestone of 1,000 active Declare labels from more than 200 different manufacturers. Declare is a nutrient label for building products. These labels represent 38 different CSI divisions from more than 25 countries, including Australia, China, Italy, Mexico, and New Zealand.
Just, which is the Institute’s social justice self-disclosure program for organizations, experienced tremendous growth this past year, with more than 150 active labels and 140 organizations in process. In 2021, Just contributed to a better working experience for more than 23,000 employees. The three largest organizations that achieved a label in the past year include DPR Construction (6,804 employees), Teknion Limited (2,819 employees), and Humanscale (1,000 employees).
The Institute also issued a new book through its Ecotone imprint, The PAE Living Building: Developer-Led, Nature-Inspired, which takes a deep dive into the financing, design, and construction of Portland’s first project to pursue Living certification.
Living Future 2022 also offered a chance for community reflection. Perhaps the most acute lesson of the pandemic is the enormous difference between individual resilience and collective resilience. The past two years have shown that although there are pathways to survive the worst catastrophic events available to some, to survive as an individual can be meager, lonely, and hollow. Surviving as a community is the only path forward to a flourishing future where our cultures, our institutions, our cities, and our communities can continue to exist. In the coming months, guided by its strategic plan, the Institute will move beyond supporting individual projects, to coalesce and mobilize for public policy reform and a rapid shift in the industry culture.
Living Future 2022 was made possible due to the generous support from a community of sponsors: Google, which was Presenting Sponsor and Living Future Scholarship Donor; Glumac, which was Stephen R. Kellert Biophilic Design Sponsor, Beauty + Biophilia Track Sponsor, and Living Future Scholarship Donor; King County GreenTools, which was Climate Justice Track Sponsor; Kohler, which was Resilience Track Sponsor; Mecho, which was Stephen R. Kellert Biophilic Design Sponsor and Health Track Sponsor; Perkins&Will, which was Zero Carbon Track Sponsor; SmithGroup, which was Living Future Scholarship Donor; Sustainable Minds, which was Sponsor and Media Partner; AIA Committee on the Environment, which was Media Partner; along with Architectural Nexus, Artisan Moss, ASSA ABLOY, Bassetti Architects, Beneficial State Bank, Bio Studio, Bruner/Cott Architects, Epsten Group, GLY Construction, Group14 Engineering, HMTX, McKinstry, PAE Engineers, 3E Exchange, and WRNS Studio.
The International Living Future Institute offers our sincere gratitude and appreciation to all LF22 Sponsors. Thank you.
About the International Living Future Institute
The International Living Future Institute is a global nonprofit organization that envisions a Living Future – a society that is socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative – and shows that it works better in practice and policy. The Institute operates the Living Building Challenge, the world’s most ambitious, advanced, and holistic performance standard for green, resilient, and healthy buildings. It is also a hub for many other visionary programs that support the transformation toward–and provide a compelling vision for–a living future accessible to all. Learn more at www.living-future.org.