Developing A strategy for'living buildings': Beyond cradle to cradle with living building concept (original) (raw)

Quite often construction has been blamed for being unsustainable, causing high levels of waste, carbon emissions and use of resources. As in other industries, there is an urgent need to face the challenge to increase the performance of buildings. This urgency has been embraced by in their book 'Cradle to cradle: remaking the way we make things'. The idea of cradle to cradle (C2C) is to pursue the 'right kind' of growth, and the key to that is better design of the things we make. The Living Building Concept (LBC) shares the same objectives of C2C stressing the need for good design and changing the way we build. In addition LBC offers a strategy how to apply these objectives in practice, increasing the benefit of buildings for suppliers as well as demanders, and society as a whole. The strategy is aimed at keeping built objects 'fit for purpose' and 'up to date' continuously by applying new technologies and insights for improved performance and sustainability. The strategy implies an integrated approach to the procurement and delivery of built objects. This requires construction clients as well as companies to revise their own strategies too. Clients need to revise their procurement and contracts allowing and challenging construction companies to supply integrated and sustainable products and life cycle service. Construction companies must become integrated suppliers for living buildings applying rules of product development, and the construction sector as a whole to become a 'normal' consumer products industry delivering new products fitted out with the latest technology to its customers. This paper squares LBC with C2C, and indentifies areas where LBC can add to translate the shared objectives of both concepts into an integrated strategy to achieve 'living buildings' and even 'living cities'.