The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) is making huge strides this year with its signature certification program and green building philosophy, the Living Building Challenge (LBC).
ILFI has partnered with Glumac and Gensler to plant the first seed in Asia with the first registered LBC project: Glumac’s new 6,000-square-foot office TI in Shanghai, China. The tenant improvement targets the Living Building Challenge in addition to LEED Platinum certification under the new Version 4. The new office will support Glumac’s local presence in China and will showcase to the world that the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment is beginning to take hold in Asia. We are fortunate to work with our great team of Glumac engineers in Shanghai, our design partner Gensler, and green materials advocacy group, GIGABASE.
In addition to setting foot in China, ILFI with the Glumac and Gensler design team have uncovered a new approach to designing to LBC in existing high-rise buildings. Glumac’s new 17,500-square-foot office is the first registered LBC TI in downtown Los Angeles and will occupy one floor in the 62-story, 1.1 million-square-foot Aon Center. With minimal space to generate renewable power onsite, the team is pursuing LBC Petal Recognition and a net-zero energy strategy based on a whole building heat recovery retrofit of the central chiller system. The project breaks new ground for tenants to pursue LBC in high-rise buildings and the strategy has been formalized in the LBC Dialogue for other projects to pursue.
We look forward to beginning the LBC performance period for both offices this summer. Our hope is that these projects set a new precedent for other teams to pursue the Living Building Challenge, whatever the building type or location. We believe in a fully sustainable future across the globe and look forward to celebrating these industry milestones with the certification of both offices in 2015.
To find out more, please contact me at [email protected].