What Is a Net Zero Building?

Let’s try to understand what a Net Zero Building really is. There are many recognised pathways to one, and we have chosen the most stringent and demanding path available to us: the one set out by the International Living Future Institute.

Our goal is not to get a building certified. It is to show a path of possibilities.

Creating a Net Zero Building is not a destination; it is a journey. There are three key milestones along the way.

Zero Energy

Requires 100% of the building’s energy needs, on a net annual basis, to be supplied by on-site renewable energy. No on-site combustion is allowed, and compliance is proven through a third-party audit of actual performance data over twelve months.

Zero Carbon

Strictly requires 100% of the building’s energy to be supplied by on-site renewables, with zero combustion. It also requires offsetting the embodied carbon associated with construction.

Living Building Challenge

The goal of the Living Building Challenge is to take this a step further. Rather than merely reducing harm, it requires projects to operate regeneratively — generating more energy than they use, capturing and treating all of their water, and avoiding toxic materials over a twelve-month operational period. It asks a building to amalgamate naturally into its environment and become like a plant or a tree: giving more to nature than it takes, while bringing beauty and a sense of regeneration to everyone around it.

There are multiple levels to this certification, with the final stage being crossing all twenty thresholds.