At the 2015 Living Future UnConference in Seattle last week, the ILFI announced the release of The Living Product Challenge – a framework that re-imagines the design and construction of products to function as elegantly and efficiently as anything found in the natural world. Living Products are informed by biomimicry and biophilia; manufactured by processes powered only by renewable energy and within the water balance of the places they are made. Living Products improve our quality of life and bring joy through their beauty and functionality. Imagine a Living Product whose very existence builds soil; creates habitat; nourishes the human spirit; and provides inspiration for personal, political and economic change.
Like the Living Building Challenge, the Living Product Challenge is comprised of seven performance categories, or ‘Petals’: Place, Water, Energy, Health and Happiness, Materials, Equity and Beauty. Petals are subdivided into 20 Imperatives, each of which focuses on a specific sphere of influence.
The program is already supported by The Living Product 50, a group of fifty leading manufacturers collaborating to transform the materials economy through transparency, green chemistry and supply chain innovation. Members of the LP 50 collaborate, share lessons learned and find ways to cross-pollinate ideas between industries and disciplines in order to create and market the world’s first Living Products.
In addition to the LP50, the Chrysalis is a group of companies who commit time and resources to developing and launching the world’s first Living Products in partnership with the Institute. These first pilot companies will attempt the Challenge and provide feedback from their experiences implementing the program to inform future versions of and ongoing development of the Living Product Standard.
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If this sounds like something you would like to be a part of, you can get in contact with the Living Product Challenge team by emailing them at [email protected].
