The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design is the first building in Georgia and 28th in the world to earn Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification, the world’s most ambitious and holistic green building achievement. Rather than being less bad for the environment and people, The Kendeda Building is regenerative.

Over the course of a year, its photovoltaic system supplies more electricity that the building uses, thereby making the building net-positive water. The building is also net-positive water. Its 16 foam flush composting toilets and waterless urinals (combined) use less water than one typical low-flow toilet. By incorporating salvaged materials during construction, the building diverted more waste from the landfill than it sent. To keep economic benefits local, at least 50% of the building materials and services were sourced from within 621 miles of the site. And it prioritizes occupant health and happiness. The Building is composed of materials screened for common hazardous chemicals known to harm human and environmental health.

This multi-disciplinary classroom building exists to prove that we can design, construct, and operate regenerative buildings in our region. This mission, to catalyze regenerative change in our region, gains legitimacy by having a Living Building in Georgia because we need a local example to show the community, industry, and policymakers. The Kendeda Building staff are charged with advancing this mission to change the paradigm from buildings that are "less bad" to buildings that give back more than they take.

Many project teams are seeking to prioritize superior performance and occupant health by incorporating these regenerative design, construction, and operation techniques. The owners of these buildings understand that return on investment (ROI) is more than just monetary. However, they still need an idea of monetary ROI because at the end of the day, these projects do need to be funded. Moreover, we need to drive down hard and soft costs to allow to reach critical scale for regenerative infrastructure.

What is the living building challenge?

  • A brief summary of the living building challenge to set the tone of the document
  • A statement about Georgia Tech’s decision to take on the challenge
  1. An introduction to the Kendeda Building
  • Full page infographic–A cutaway with leader lines and brief descriptions of energy saving elements and technology used throughout the building
  • Link to StructionSite video tour of building to add an interactive element
  • Awards
  • Overall Energy Rating
  1. Full page of photos of other comparable buildings on campus to show the difference in energy use (Greg had mentioned on the call he has a list of the top 20-25 buildings)
  2. Summary of Energy in Kendeda building
  • Half page Infographic-Summarize overall energy usage for Chilled Water/Gas/ Solar etc.
  • Callout to refer readers to appendix to view full spreadsheets to see the full details
  • Small sidebar or callout graphic to mention 2015 yellow book data
  • Table or paragraph to showcase Benchmarking EUI and give a summarized value for how each form of energy is scoring
  1. Return on Investment
  • What is the ROI?
  • Why it is important to other higher education institutions moving froward
  • Contact person for more information
  1. Appendix
  • Overall background information, sources, and spreadsheets