The Living Building Challenge (LBC), the green-building certification system administered by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), is the winner of the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. As such, the LBC and ILFI have won $100,000 to further develop and scale the program and its work.

Awarded by the Buckminster Fuller Institute, the challenge recognizes initiatives that take a comprehensive and anticipatory design approach to advance human well-being and the health of the planet’s ecosystem. The LBC has been a finalist for the annual prize every year since 2010.

Entries must be comprehensive, anticipatory (factoring in critical future trends and needs as well as projecting effects of implementation), ecologically responsible, feasible, verifiable (able to withstand rigorous empirical testing), and replicable.

The LBC requires projects to meet 20 imperatives across seven categories, or petals, including net-zero energy, waste, and water, and must verify results with a minimum of 12 months of continuous post-occupancy data. The first projects were certified in October 2010, and ECO-STRUCTURE spoke with LBC author Jason McLennan in January 2011 regarding the goals of the system. In October 2011, the Bullitt Center in Seattle, the first urban, multistory project aiming for Living Building status, won the On the Boards category of ECO-STRUCTURE’s Evergreen Awards, and this month, we spoke with the foundation’s director, Denis Hayes, about the LBC from the client perspective.

A runner-up and several honorable mentions also were named at the Buckminster Fuller Challenge award ceremony in New York City. Future of Fish, a nonprofit accelerator for entrepreneurs launching market-based initiatives that drive sustainability, efficiency, and traceability in the seafood supply chain, was the runner-up. Eco-Fuel Africa Limited, which works with rural farmers in Africa to make clean cooking fuel and organic fertilizers, and the Water Retention Landscape of Tamera, a model for natural decentralized water management, restoration of damaged ecosystems, and disaster prevention, were the honorable mentions.

More information on all the honorees, as well as statements about the winners form the Buckminster Fuller Institute and the jury is online here.