ENR’s 51st annual Award of Excellence winner grew up in an ecologically devastated mining town in northern Ontario, undergoing an environmental rebirth. Watching the landscape turn from gray to green inspired him to heal the planet through architecture. At age 32, he launched the Living Building Challenge. To receive full Living Building certification, teams must achieve strict performance goals in seven categories: place, water, energy, health and happiness, materials, beauty and equity. Undaunted by skeptics who thought the challenge was too difficult, this winner and his team pushed on, and there are now 330 LBC-registered projects worldwide.