The 13th annual Living Future unConference was a hugely successful event packed with workshops, summits, game-changing announcements, and most importantly, incredible people! The event, set in Seattle’s new Hyatt Regency hotel was host to over 1,300 of our closest friends, making it the most attended event yet. Keynote speakers Bill McKibben, Mustafa Santiago Ali, and Mary Robinson brought to the stage their own unique blends of inspiration and sobering views of the future in their calls-to-action against Climate Change.
Among the big announcements at Living Future was the Core Green Building Certification, a new gateway certification program that aims to bridge the market gap between the highest levels of established green building certification programs and the aspirations of the Living Building Challenge. ILFI also announced a bold new update to the Challenge itself, Living Building Challenge 4.0. With LBC 4.0 ILFI will begin the process of volume certification with newly announced pilot organizations Google, PCC Community Markets, King County, The BLOCK Project, and Community REBuilds.
The unConference featured 15 Minutes of Brilliance addresses from speakers such as Jamie Margolin, founder of ZeroHour, Sara Sanford, founder of Gender Equity Now, Mark Chambers, Chief Sustainability Officer for New York City as well as over 100 speakers throughout 30+ sessions.
With the launch of LBC 4.0 and Core, a streamlined documentation process, and with special thanks to the Living Future Accredited Ambassadors leading the program’s expansion into more than 70 nations, ILFI’s now decade-old Challenge is market-tested, refined, and rapidly scaling.
It was clear that this year’s record-breaking Living Future unConference marked a palpable shift in the sustainability movement, with many attendees keen to register projects right away. Sessions and office hours with technical program staff were packed, with the conference selling out earlier than in past years. Conversations with clients and owners about certification at the event were consistent: “I’d like a Living Building. Where do I start?” Luckily for them, they were in the right place to do so, and you too can get started – reach out to us today at lbc.support@living-future.org to learn more.
