Recently, in the living room of his nearly complete dream house on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Jason F. McLennan watched as Kevin Wildes, a vice president of the floor-covering giant Mohawk Group, swiftly pieced together a modular area rug. McLennan—ENR’s 2016 Award of Excellence winner for masterminding the world’s most rigorous green-building performance standard—had a big smile on his face.
The creator of the 11-year-old Living Building Challenge (LBC) was pleased because the carpet, from Mohawk’s new Lichen Collection by McLennan Design, is his first design collaboration on a supersustainably produced line of floor coverings. The rug is one of several innovations in McLennan’s 3,200-sq-ft residence, called Heron Hall, which he designed as a living laboratory and showcase for regenerative building.