Green building visionary says Australia needs to transform its built environments

Australia needs to transform its cities, infrastructure and its architecture if it is to be part of a global solution to the most pressing environmental challenges of our times, according to Jason F. McLennan, founder of the world's most stringent and progressive green building certification program, the Living Building Challenge.

Tonight Jason will present a free public lecture at Sydney's MLC Centre as part of his Australian Living Building Challenge workshop and lecture series. In his speech, Jason will present a powerful vision of the future of design and community, showing exciting examples of projects around the world that are 'triple net zero' - meaning net zero energy, water and waste - and meet the Challenge's criteria across its seven performance areas - site, water, energy, health, materials, equity and beauty.

According to Jason, we need to take more design lessons from nature: "We use the concept of a flower as the metaphor for a living building. It is rooted in place, must survive on the resources it can capture and utilise, and is also beautiful."

Opportunities for Australia to create a greener built environment include:

• Running our buildings on energy captured and generated on-site via renewable means such as solar energy. According to Jason: "If we can do this in rainy Seattle, you could certainly achieve this in Australia."
• Only consuming water captured on site, or at least within the local neighbourhood: "Where natural resources are limited, a small scale neighbourhood approach is often the most sustainable and effective approach," he said.
• Eliminating the idea of waste: "In the natural environment there are no wastes - everything has a use in the overall system. Nothing is enduringly toxic. This is probably our biggest challenge and we are not even close to matching nature on this," Jason commented.

"Green building is a hot topic in the design and construction sectors, yet the industry has barely begun to push the boundaries of what is possible. If you consider global issues such as climate change, water and resource scarcity, habitat loss and the rise of persistent toxic chemicals, it's clear that we need transformational change in a short time span rather than incremental change," said Jason.

Commenting the Living Building Challenge, the Green Building Council of Australia's Chief Executive, Romilly Madew, said: "The GBCA is keen to engage with Jason McLennan and the Living Building Challenge. Initiatives that develop the conversation around greener buildings and communities can be great catalysts for change. The GBCA continues to support all robust, transparent and well-governed rating tools and systems that can transform Australia's built environment."

Jason is visiting Australia in partnership with Viridis E3, an Australian Environmentally Sustainable Design consultancy, to present a Living Building Challenge workshop and public lecture series that has already visited Melbourne and Canberra. Following tonight's lecture in Sydney, he will present one-day workshop in Brisbane (15 November). Register online.

"We are very pleased to bring Jason to Australia for this inspiring lecture and workshop series," said Warren Overton, Managing Director of Viridis E3. "The Living Building Challenge is a truly visionary program and an important progression to help Australian design professionals, contractors, owners, and developers understand what we can do to achieve true sustainability in the built environment."

Jeff Robinson, Sustainability Leader at Aurecon, national sponsor of the series, commented: "Aurecon is delighted to support Jason McLennan and the International Living Future Institute in their journey to take building sustainability to the next level towards a built environment that is restorative and contributes positively to our ecosystem, quality of life and community."

About the Living Building Challenge

Built on the premise, 'What if every single act of design and construction made the world a better place?', the Living Building Challenge is a philosophy, advocacy tool and certification program that addresses development at all scales. It comprises seven performance areas - site, water, energy, health, materials, equity and beauty - and is the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today.

The Living Building Challenge is attracting growing interest in Australia and a number of local projects are already registered for the Living Building Challenge, including the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre at the University of Wollongong's Innovation Campus and the Global Change Institute building at the University of Queensland.

About Jason F. McLennan, CEO, International Living Future Institute

Jason McLennan is CEO of the International Living Future Institute and founder of the Living Building Challenge. He is known as an international thought leader in the green architecture movement and has lectured on sustainability across the globe. He is also the author of four books: The Philosophy of Sustainable Design, The Dumb Architect's Guide to Glazing Selection, the Ecological Engineer, and Zugunruhe, the inner migration to profound environmental change. McLennan's work and ideas are widely published in periodicals across the planet.

For information, please contact:

Jennifer Parker
Sage Communications
e: jennifer@sagecomms.com.au
p: 0403 296 864