By Alexander Landa
Seattle is proving once again why it's a city to be taken seriously in the green building industry.
October 7th marked the day that Ed Murray – the mayor of Seattle – signed legislation to continue the Living Building Pilot Program until 2025. This update will allow a total of twenty buildings to participate in this program in Seattle.
This all comes back to Capitol Hill's Bullitt Center – currently the only Living Building in Seattle. The city is pushing for more construction, and green building is making a stronger presence than before, now.
City planners won't have to wonder why they haven't seen any more living buildings, as the pilot program has expanded. In addition to allowing more buildings, the legislation also proposed technical adjustments to 'better align city laws with recent changes in state laws to streamline city buildings codes.' These changes will involve things such as requiring high-efficiency heaters, being ready for solar panels, etc.
Living Buildings are awesome! This emerging topic is picking up a lot of steam now, and it's a good time for you to get involved as well. As part of ABX 2016 November 15th-17th, the USGBC MA Chapter is sponsoring a few sessions. One of these sessions, B04: Living up to the Living Building Challenge: The Owner's Perspective, will cover this topic in great detail. On a related note, we're also sponsoring B68: Designing for Net Positive Water and Energy – a topic that couples well with Living Buildings!
You can also see our full list of sessions we're sponsoring here.
Image and Source 1: Capitol Hill Seattle
Source 2: 3BL Media
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