By launching the world's first zero-carbon-energy building certification program, the International Living Future Institute, creator of the super-rigorous Living Building Challenge, is further acknowledging that building teams may need to jog before they enter sustainable-building marathons.
ILFI's third-party Zero Carbon Certification initiative, which involves highly efficient buildings that offset energy use regardless of the location of the renewable energy production, is considered an "on-ramp" to the three other more-difficult-to-achieve parts of the LBC. It is also a recognition that the LBC programs do not easily work for new or existing city buildings.