The buzz following this year's Greenbuild in Denver was that the green building movement has entered its heyday and that the large majority of the North American building community has awakened to the urgency of the issues we face as a civilzation, a species, and a planet.

Some real changes were made in Denver to strengthen incentives for change in th design and construction world. First, it was announced that "If you reach LEED Platinum, your certification is free!" Second, and more profound, the USGBC has aligned itself somewhat with Architecture2030 which asks architects to commit to creating carbon neutral buildings by 2030 (and incrementally better buildings up to that point).

The Cascadia chapter of the USGBC is actively spearheading two very exciting projects - Pharos and the Living Building Challenge. The Pharos Project is a community driven product information resource with a wiki back-end.

The Pharos Project seeks to define a consumer-driven vision of truly green building materials and how they should be evaluated in harmony with principles of environmental health and justice. Pharos’ foundation will be building a community to develop this vision, comprised of those who use building materials working with those who study their impacts on health and the environment. The principles of the Pharos Project are transparency, comprehensiveness, independence, accuracy and fairness applied to analyzing the impact building materials have on human health, the environment and communities – during production, use, and at the end of their useful life. More info at Healthy Building News.

The second initiative coming out of Cascadia is the Living Building Challenge. This challenge asks designers to exceed LEED - to design a completely energy, water, climate, and chemically neutral building.

Imagine buildings that are built to operate as elegantly and efficiently as a flower. Imagine a building that is informed by the eco-region’s characteristics and that generates all of its own energy with renewable resources, that captures and treats all of its water on site that uses resources efficiently, and for maximum beauty. The Cascadia Region Green Building Council (Cascadia) is issuing a challenge to all building owners, architects, engineers and design professionals to build in a way that will provide all of us and our children with a sustainable future.