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In 2007, the Town of Chrisney, a small, rural community of fewer than 600 people, executed a feasibility study for a prospective library facility. The study revealed that a branch of the Lincoln Heritage Public Library could only be realized if it had virtually no operating costs due to the limited capacity of the local library district for new operating…

The Old Oak Dojo is a small, privately owned ancillary building, built next to a multi-family residence. It resides on a wooded lot in a dense urban neighborhood of Boston. The multipurpose studio space is available for educational gatherings and performances, and serves as a community space where neighbors can congregate to create healthy and resilient communities. The project functions…

With the Davie & Andrews Branch in Ft. Lauderdale, PNC sets a new industry benchmark for high-performance retail bank branch design by achieving net zero energy. This project represented an evolution of PNC’s Green Branch® prototype which was the first design to receive LEED Volume Certification and which led PNC to build more newly-constructed LEED certified buildings than any other…

The purpose of this project is partly contained in its name, Journey to Net Zero, but the purpose generally is to refit a century-old Seattle home to produce all of its energy, and to have edible and pleasant landscaping that is a resource for humans and wildlife. The project has a broad environmental focus that includes conservation of energy and…

The Project is the interior renovation of an existing Mohawk Group showroom in Dalton, Georgia, into the new Mohawk Design Studio. The studio will occupy approximately 33,000 square feet on one floor of an existing building. At this time, the renovation does not include any alterations to the existing building envelope, and all existing HVAC equipment and ductwork will remain….

Can a product really create positive good in the world? Humanscale, an office products manufacturer, is using the tenets of the Living Product Challenge (LPC) to guide the manufacturing of their latest  Diffrient Smart Chair and Float Table. The company seeks to refine their processes to produce Living Products that will indeed pose a positive impact and will serve as…

In the past few decades, nearly every large company has adopted the word “sustainability” into its organizational vernacular. The rise in popularity of sustainable practices is in part a business trend but is also a reaction from business and government to assuage human impact on the environment. As a whole, sustainable practices have largely produced incremental positive change toward preserving…

Net zero energy is quickly becoming a sought-after goal for many buildings worldwide. The media focuses primarily on commercial buildings, but there are a number of innovative homeowners who seek to reduce demand on the earth’s natural resources. Residential net zero energy buildings are examples of what is possible when homeowners and designers look at how to reduce energy demands…

Reveal, a transparency label by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), aims to make known the energy use of commercial buildings for the purpose of broadening people’s access to information in the corporate sphere. By labeling the electricity consumption of specific buildings, Reveal targets an invisible and often hidden component of physical structures. The Reveal label brings forward numerics and…

International Living Future Institute Founder and Chairman Jason F. McLennan received a distinguished Award of Excellence from Engineering News Record (ENR) at a ceremony in New York City on April 7, 2016. “The award is truly an honor,” said McLennan. “I’m both humbled and energized to receive it, humbled when I look at those who have received this honor before…

PRESS RELEASE “We’re Catalyzing a Materials Revolution” says ILFI’s James Connelly (Washington, DC, and Seattle) On April 4, 2016, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced that the Living Future Institute’s Declare label is now an approved pathway for Option 1 of the Building Product Optimization and Disclosure, Material Ingredients credit for LEED v4. Declare labels with ingredient disclosure greater…

The Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (ICECF), with the help of the International Living Future Institute, has launched a Net Zero Energy Building Program full of great incentives to help projects realize their potential in high performance buildings. The Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) Certification Program at ILFI is the only performance-based certification for buildings of its type. Utilizing Living…

Surrounded by the majestic mountains of Appalachia, the area of Welch, West Virginia, located in McDowell County, was once a bustling working-class town completely dependent on the extraction economy of coal. Deeply connected to the dirty energy, Welch was the world’s largest producer of coal. As a child, my mother-in-law would wave goodbye to her father each day as he went…