An extension of The Georgia Institute of Technology, The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design was completed last year and is evaluated by The Living Building Challenge – a building certification program and tool that defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment today. The pending certificate makes The Kendeda Building the most environmentally advanced educational and research facility of its kind in the Southeast of USA. According to The Living Building Challenge program, its projected energy use intensity is 72 % more efficient than your average building of the same size and occupancy. In total, the building’s system produces more energy than it consumes, making it a net-positive energy facility. Designed to function as a true living, learning laboratory, it educates and transforms future generations of thinkers and doers to reimagine how we interact with our buildings and surroundings for a more sustainably built environment.

Tucked away in the harbor of Trondheim, Norway lies office development, Powerhouse Brattørkaia: the worlds northernmost energy-positive building. A part of the Powerhouse collaboration – a standard for the buildings of the future, based on the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree target – Brattørkaia is designed after the philosophy “form follows environment”, versus the common phrase “form follows function”. The building produces more than double the amount of electricity it consumes daily. Fusing forward-thinking, highly efficient architecture and engineering with renewable energy sources, such as solar panels and geothermal energy, it sets an extraordinary example of how buildings can be a solution to climate change without compromising on aesthetics.