“We had a record-breaking year, registering more new projects than any previous year since our founding.”

Data & Trends

International Living Future Institute programs, including the Living Building Challenge, Core, Zero Carbon, and Zero Energy, are performance-based, whole building design and construction standards. They are the most ambitious green building certifications globally, setting a new paradigm of how buildings can operate. In 2021, ILFI registered more than 100 projects in 18 countries on six continents across the globe. When combined, these projects represent more than 11 million square feet (or 1 million square meters)!  

We are growing internationally – 43% of our project registrations were outside the United States. We’re seeing global growth in Latin America & the Caribbean, including Antigua, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, and St Lucia. Asia & Oceania have grown with projects registered in Australia, China, India, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates. Europe has reported projects in Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

There is a strong demand for Zero Carbon and Zero Energy certifications, leading the way with over half of this year’s total registered gross building area (5.66 million square feet). The Core Green Building Certification (Core) is becoming a popular choice for residential projects, representing more than half of the 29 Core registrations. Of the 33 Petal and Living registrations, 80% of the square area was commercial use, with 11% seeking certification for residential projects.

Overall, 60% of total registrations were commercial projects with growth in office spaces and warehouses pursuing Living and Zero Carbon, respectively. 13% of our projects, or nearly 1.5 million square feet of area, were of a residential type. Sixteen affordable housing developments were registered, totaling 1.22 million square feet – a tremendous growth. 

We had a record-breaking year, registering more new projects than any previous year since our founding. We’ve had an 87% growth in the number of registered projects and a 48% increase in square area compared to 2020. This growth represents 11% in the total number of registered projects and 32% growth in the overall square area of registered projects. 

Jump to the map. 

Significant Projects

Aspen Distillery | LBC Living – Basalt, CO, USA

Aspen Distillers will be a farm-to-bottle distillery producing premium quality spirits. Through partnerships with local growers and by growing a variety of plants on the site, Aspen Distillers will produce high-quality products that speak to and support the agrarian roots of the Roaring Fork Valley in Pitkin County, Colorado. The project encompasses a 5,000 SF distillery building that will be the focus of our Living Building Challenge project along with an onsite wastewater treatment facility. The site will also include a headquarters building, rickhouse, and three small residences. The site incorporates over 4 acres of agricultural area for crop production.

Best Products Building | LBC Living – Henrico County, VA, USA

GreenCity is a proposed 200-acre mixed-use eco-district community in Henrico County, VA. Among the more consequential concepts in the plan, is the re-purposing of the former BEST Products Headquarters Building, turning it into an emblematic, 300,000 SF 21st-Century workplace and embracing the full spectrum of the Living Building Challenge. As part of the goal to create a Living Building, the roof is to be fully developed as an extension of the building’s tenant program and an embrace of the surrounding eco-district goals. Amenity decks will offer tenants a variety of environments that will blur the lines between work and play. Rooftop farming programs will provide tenants with the opportunity to directly interact with the community through activities that can transform the development into something more than simply a place to work.

Gandhi Mahal | Pangea World Theater | Core – Minneapolis, MN, USA

The Gandhi Mahal restaurant was burned down in the uprising following the murder of George Floyd. They are partnering with Pangea World Theater to build a mixed-use program to serve the community. Programs include a new restaurant space for Gandhi Mahal, including seed bank, commissary kitchen, market | butcher, community space, and a rooftop greenhouse. Pangea World Theater’s spaces will include a 250-seat theater, a plaza for outdoor performance, cafe, and community workshop spaces.

DBS Newton Office Building | Zero Carbon + Zero Energy – Singapore

The project site is an existing 4-story building in Singapore, owned by DBS Bank Ltd. The building comprises a bank branch on the ground floor, along with offices and common areas on the additional floors. The objective is to upgrade the existing facilities in a way that significantly reduces energy usage. The building is rezoned and redesigned to reduce air-conditioned spaces and leverage passive strategies. This project is considered significant as DBS plans to use it as a pilot for upcoming projects, so all the technologies being experimented with are planned, upon successful performance, to be implemented across the DBS buildings portfolio. Additionally, renewable energy systems will be installed to generate energy onsite. 

Ōtorohanga Kiwi Park Redevelopment | LCC, LBC Living – Ōtorohanga, New Zealand

Ōtorohanga Kiwi House is an iconic New Zealand native bird park and conservation trust in operation since 1971. It was the first Kiwi house open to the NZ public and hatched the first Kiwi chicks from incubation in 1975. A very proud history, the park sits within the rural township of Ōtorohanga within the Waikato district of the North Island of New Zealand. The park is now undertaking a complete redevelopment, retaining and refurbishing some buildings, construction of 12 new infrastructure aviary/habitats, and new buildings. The redevelopment will be undertaken to the Living Community Standard. Four new buildings will be constructed of which two are intended to achieve full Living Building Challenge certification.

Vlahoke | LBC Living – Weogufka, AL, USA

Ekvn-Yefolecv is an intentional ecovillage community of Indigenous Maskoke persons who, after 180 years of having been forcibly removed from traditional Alabama homelands, have returned to practice linguistic, cultural, and ecological sustainability. The project, Vlahoke (uh-lah-hoe-ghee), is a building typology of approximately 25,000 square feet and has a projected open date of Spring 2025. This building, aiming to achieve Living Certification under Living Building Challenge version 4.0 and will serve multiple functions: 1) eco-learning center – wherein guests will inherently interface with off-grid integrated regenerative systems during their retreats, board meetings, spiritual gatherings, and academic field education; 2) museum – to educate the public about historical and contemporary racial justice and Indigenous cultural worldview; 3) farm-to-table restaurant; 4) hike in/out and lodging space for hikers on the Pinhoti Trail – a 335-mile hiking trail that connects to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

Map of Public (Non-Confidential) Projects

Please visit the interactive map linked above to learn more about our publicly announced (non-confidential) projects that registered this year. You can view more information on the project location, type, and square area.
See an error on the map? Let us know!

2021 Project Registrations (115)

Zero Carbon (24)

  • 31 Tufts – Somerville, MA, USA
  • Casa Adelante – 681 Florida Street – San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Kelso House – San Antonio, TX, USA
  • Pefkon360 – Polidendri, Attica, Greece
  • GreenA Consultants HQ – Singapore
  • Bora Studio – Portland, OR, USA
  • 1416 12th Street – Oakland, CA, USA
  • Penn’s Landing Pavilion – Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • 16 Confidential Projects

Zero Energy (25)

  • Navigate Office Center – St Louis, MO, USA
  • Ardor Wood Farm – Red Rock, TX, USA
  • Lakeside Branch Library – Lakeside, CA, USA
  • MC2 HQ Building – Abu Dhabi, UAE
  • City of Berkeley Adult Mental Health Clinic – Berkeley, CA, USA
  • CoSD – Borrego Springs Library – Borrego Springs, CA, USA
  • Net Zero Agriculture Complex – Heartland Community College – Normal, IL, USA
  • Raccoon River Park Boathouse – West Des Moines, IA, USA
  • Success High School – Woodburn, OR, USA
  • 2500 Wilson – Arlington, VA, USA
  • Oak Park Community Recreation Center – Oak Park, IL, USA
  • Reddy Sustainable Home Panaiyur – Chennai, India
  • Sundial Building – Minneapolis, MN, USA
  • PG&E Davis T-Line Fab Shop – Davis, CA, USA
  • Hollywood Recreation Center – Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Ohio Street Probation Center – San Diego, CA, USA
  • Stead Park Community Center – Washington DC, USA
  • 4 Confidential Projects

Zero Carbon + Zero Energy (3)

  • Tree Haus – Wilson, WY, USA
  • Antigua Solar Cabin – Long Island, Antigua & Barbuda
  • DBS Newton Office Building, Singapore

Core (29)

  • Green Architecture Research and Evaluation Center – Chengdu, Sichuan, China
  • Hazelwood Community Land Trust Homes – Pittsburgh, PA, USA
  • Kite Crossing – Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • 350 China Basin Street – San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Swarthmore College Martin Building Renovation & Addition – Swarthmore, PA, USA
  • Muhlenberg College Parkway Community Building – Allentown, PA, USA
  • Yee Chain International Co., Ltd. Headquarters – Taichung City, Taiwan
  • Paremata Apartments – Porirua, Wellington, New Zealand
  • Cape Cod Pavilion – Barnstable, MA, USA
  • Lovettsville Square South – Lovettsville, VA, USA
  • Spring Street – Cincinnati, OH, USA
  • Scotch College Wellbeing & Sports Centre – Torrens Park, South Australia, Australia
  • Jade Mountain Resort – Soufriere, SLU, Saint Lucia
  • Unity House – Detroit, Michigan, USA
  • FSi Engineers Seattle Office – Seattle, Washington, USA
  • Gandhi Mahal | Pangea World Theater – Minneapolis, MN, USA
  • Environmental Education and Research Center (EERC) – Kenmore, WA, USA
  • Unison Networks Windsor Substation – Hastings, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
  • 337 Cumberland Ave – Portland, ME, USA
  • 2301 Ensley – Birmingham, AL, USA
  • Alma Street Commons – Durham, NC, USA
  • 8 Confidential Projects

Living Building Challenge – Petal (10)

  • Glendarrah CoHousing – Hazelbrook, New Zealand
  • 180 Jones Street – San Francisco, CA USA
  • Conservatory Apartments – Chicago, IL, USA
  • Everett Housing Authority Baker Heights Phase 2 – Everett, WA, USA
  • Providence Generations – Issaquah, WA, USA
  • Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park at Rowan University – Sewell, NJ, USA
  • Brown-Teal Residence at Deer Lake – Deer River, MN, USA
  • Casa Tamarindo – Tamarindo, Costa Rica
  • Little by Little Studios – Winnipeg, MB, Canada
  • 1 Confidential Project

Living Building Challenge – Living (23)

  • Island Grown Farm – Vineyard Haven, MA, USA
  • King County Metro Transit Bus Stop – Auburn, WA, USA
  • Pā Reo – Otaki, Wellington, New Zealand
  • Nexus Builds 2021 – Sacramento, CA, USA
  • Nexus Builds 2022 – Salt Lake, UT, USA
  • Circlewood Village – Camano Island, WA, USA
  • Academy for Global Citizenship New Campus – Chicago, IL, USA
  • Nayan and Meaghan’s Regenerative Homestead – Manchester Township, MI, USA
  • 6817 Greenwood – Seattle, WA, USA
  • Best Products Building – Henrico County, VA, USA
  • Mount Rose – Avenell, Victoria, Australia
  • Pabellón de la Isla – Lerma Municipality, Mexico
  • Ōtorohanga ​​Nocturnal House – Ōtorohanga, New Zealand
  • Ōtorohanga ​​Visitor Centre – Ōtorohanga, New Zealand
  • Flor de Piedra – Tapalpa, Jalisco, Mexico
  • Vlahoke – Weogufka, AL, USA
  • Polar Bears at The Canadian Wilds – Calgary, AB, Canada
  • Old First House – Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • Aspen Distillery – Basalt, CO, USA
  • 4 Confidential Project

Living Community Challenge (1)

Ōtorohanga Kiwi House Redevelopment – Ōtorohanga, New Zealand

Photo rendering by Anderson Mason Dale Architecture
Written By

Richard Garrett

Richard supports the International Living Future Institute with outreach efforts. He partners with program owners–such as the Living Building Challenge (LBC), Declare, ZE/ZC, and JUST–to connect the mission, ideals, and practices of ILFI through marketing, sales, and program support. With over 15 years in customer service and sales support, Richard brings wide-field experience and a continuous improvement approach to his work at the Institute. After moving to the Northwest in 2006, he found a passion for grassroots action while developing a corporate sustainability employee engagement program and coordinating community service projects. Later, he joined the leadership team of the Seattle Collaborative of Cascadia Green Building Council as Marketing Chair, as well as other leadership positions with sustainability-focused groups in the region. Richard holds a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Communications from Clemson University; LEED AP Operations + Maintenance and Certified Sustainable Building Advisor credentials. He is a native of the South Carolina, however, he has found a home in the Pacific Northwest for the last 14 years with his wife and their dog, Sam.