Lifecycle Building Challenge, Take Two

Last year, our own Alex Wilson served as a judge for the Lifecycle Building Challenge, a competition organized by West Coast Green, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Building Materials Reuse Association, The American Institute of Architects, Collaborative for High-Performance Schools, and Southface Energy Institute. There are two main categories: buildings and ideas. In either category, the idea is to design a project that takes a material's entire lifecycle into account. In other words, you want to design a building that can be disassembled for reuse or recycling. Ditto for a wall assembly or some other piece of a building. This year, the contest requires entrants to provide estimated square footage for buildings and estimated construction debris savings for their projects or ideas. There are also three new awards for outstanding achievement: best greenhouse gas reduction, best school design, and best residential design. We wrote up last year's winners here. I'd like to have some really cool winners to write about here or in EBN in the fall, so get to it!