Spread over 55 acres and featuring more than 255,000 different types of plants, the VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver offers the ideal setting for urban dwellers wanting to commune with nature.
The wait is over: the first projects have been certified as meeting the stringent terms of the Living Building Challenge (LBC). Two buildings have achieved full certification after their first year of operation, and a third has earned recognition for performing to LBC standards in four out of six categories. Although all three projects were completed by May 2009, they had to demonstrate through a year’s worth of data that they actually met design intentions for net-zero energy and water use. The Omega Center for Sustainable Living is one of the first two certified Living Buildings. The wastewater treatment center