For three years, “Living Buildings”—buildings that generate their own energy from renewable resources, capture and treat all the water they use, reclaim pre-developed sites, and fulfill a host of other requirements—have set the standard for green building.

But like other green building certification programs, the first iteration of the Living Building Challenge focused on individual buildings. The Cascadia Region Green Building Council—in conjunction with the International Living Building Institute—just announced the newest version of the Living Building Challenge with an even bigger goal: to fundamentally change the built environment.

Living Building Challenge 2.0 is both more comprehensive and more expansive, applying 20 “imperatives”—such as urban agriculture, limits to growth, ecological water flow, and net zero energy—to everything from small in-home remodels to community- and campus-wide initiatives, as well as infrastructure projects like bridges, roads, and parks.