Holy Cow! We’re thrilled to share a landmark achievement for the BLOCK Project: as of April 27th, 2023, The BLOCK Project officially accomplished Living Building Challenge Certification for BLOCK Home 009! This has been a huge undertaking and north star of The BLOCK Project since it started back in 2017.
What does this actually mean? The Living Building Challenge is the most rigorous environmental certification that exists, and aims to change the paradigm of our built environment from moving projects aimed at reducing environmental harm (what we commonly recognize as “sustainability”) to projects that create positive changes (“regeneration”) for a healing relationship and living future of the planet.
Cool! But why is this so important for the BLOCK Project? When we take a look at the intersections of homelessness and climate change, it’s clear that the impacts of pollution impact Black, indigenous and other communities of color as well as our unhoused communities most. It’s unfortunate that our current systems tend to force construction projects to build with cheaper, more environmentally harmful products that not only create less healthy buildings for those who occupy them, but additionally create harm where the products are being manufactured in polluting air, land, and water. For low income housing projects aimed at housing as many folks as possible, this often comes at the cost of health for the occupants, in quality of construction, and in distant locations where there’s limited visibility for harmful environmental manufacturing practices.
We’ve always built BLOCK Homes with the most healthy, durable, and environmentally conscious materials and features to create positive impacts not only for the Residents living in them, but for all participants to learn from and contribute towards a healing planet and living future. Through the Living Building Challenge, The BLOCK Project is tackling both housing insecurity and climate change that impacts our neighbors living outside most.
We could not have achieved this alone. All our partner consultants deserve a HUGE shout out and congratulations - the International Living Institute, Herrera Environmental Consultants, FSi Engineers, Berger Partnership, Miller Hull, BLOCK Architects, Arch|Nexus, Stone Soup Gardens, Hermanson, Plumbers without Borders (and more) - THANK YOU for your incredible heart, faith, gracious support and patience in making this certification possible after five years of effort. You are true models of the Facing Homelessness mission and values by demonstrating that when we work together we can face the seemingly impossible challenges in homelessness and climate change.
You can learn more about the Living Building Challenge Here: https://living-future.org/lbc/
A QUIET THOUGHT - If you're moved by the goodness of this community, please visit http://www.facinghomelessness.org/
and click on the 'donate' button and consider a "monthly recurring" donation of just $5 in support of the work. THANK YOU!
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