From Kate:
I recently had the pleasure of being a judge on the Brickworks International Living Building Challenge awards. It was the first competition in the world for designing a retail centre and to be built right here in Melbourne, Australia. Once built it will be the world’s most sustainable shopping centre and will be worth a visit.
As per the challenge requirements it needs to be free of any “red list” materials, be net positive for water and energy, locally sourced wherever possible – and that is just the start of how such living buildings will lead the way for our communities now and into the future.
For me, our future sustainable world is dependent on the intersection of passion and potential of our people.
This was what the Living Building Challenge represented. Those who entered the challenge were all passionate people thinking and creating outside the box.
How marvellous it was to look at not only the industry and tertiary student entries, but even to meet the winner of the primary school challenge. The primary school student designed a beautiful shopping centre with chain guttering and lots of other design features which demonstrated future foresight.
Frasers Development are the ones taking the winning design and making it a reality. As Peri MacDonald from Frasers said, “this is not going to be easy to put into practice and is not called the living building challenge for nothing!”
Ah! But wait – this is where our GECA leaders come in to play. Without third party certified/red list free materials, such as our licensees’ products, such a world-winning sustainable build would not be possible.
So in addition to congratulating the winners and indeed all applicants for the Living Building Challenge, I would like to congratulate our own leaders: you.
Thanks for leading the way in creating best practice sustainable solutions in Australia and beyond. Without you, the Living Building Challenge would be even harder to make a reality, now and into the future.
