When the Living Building Challenge was launched in the early 2000’s many people thought that it was impossible. And in many places illegal. Two decades later developers, architects, contractors, and visionaries are pushing the envelope and designing entire communities based upon the aspirational and rigorous Living Building guidelines.

In an ever changing and complex world, the real estate industry must change. The change needs to come from all levels: from designers and architects, builders and developers, planners and policy makers. This is especially true for real estate agents.

For twenty-two years The Ecology School has been teaching people how to tune into and read the pattern language of nature. The school aims to transform how people think about science, food, the environment, and themselves through joyful, hands-on learning for all ages.

On this tiny spec we call home in the universe, matter is neither created nor destroyed. Every living thing is created from the Earth. Death and life are the two sides of the same coin. They are both constant and infinite, yet we experience them as finite.

As life has drastically changed for many of us in the past year, we begin to look at our spaces differently. We not only spend the majority of time within our homes, but also in the spaces between our homes. For most of us, however, these spaces were not designed in order to promote health and wellbeing.

Permaculture is a creative design process based on whole-systems thinking informed by ethics and design principles. This approach seeks to mimic the patterns and relationships we can find in nature and can be applied to all aspects of human habitation, from agriculture to ecological building, from appropriate technology to education and even metropolises.

As we all collectively search for solutions to address the large, complex problems we are facing in the 21st century, The Savory Institute is taking a bold lead with a land management framework that is helping to regenerate land, sequester carbon, reconnect the hydrological cycle, and springboard biodiversity across continents.

Living in Costa Rica close to the beach in a tropical paradise is a dream many people have, but seldom pursue. That's not the case for Justin Dolan, the visionary and developer behind St. Michael's Sustainable Community.

In a world with millions of rental properties, very few landlords are thinking beyond the single bottom line. The mainstream dogma of the industry teaches new investors to just focus on the numbers, yet ignores the potential impact that an investor can make by infusing sustainability into their properties and portfolios.

Ashley Colby’s life is one in which passion meets purpose. She dared to take the road less traveled; the road that many of us only glimpse in bleary-eyed daydreams. To venture into the unknown, guided by a burning question of “What could be?” takes a leap of faith. It is an act that tests your resolve, questions your motives, grades on your patience, and thus, builds your resilience.

When we stop viewing nature as something we dominate, yet instead work with, transformation will happen. The land manager becomes a steward that is in partnership with nature to build soil biology so that life can flourish. The enigmatic Hobbs Magaret, founder of Sisters Cattle Co, was once a professional musician living in Los Angeles.

The Solar Village Company develops residential homes for sale and rent in sustainable communities that produces their own energy, food and water. They also build semi-custom Net Zero modular homes for clients wanting off-grid housing options.

Well into our way into the era of the Anthropocene, the defining work of the 21st century will be on revitalizing and regenerating land and habitat. Tune into an insight interview with Biohabitats founder Keith Bower as he talks about his life’s work restoring ecosystems.

The construction industry does not have a sterling reputation when it comes to sustainability. In fact, studies how that the construction sector contributes to 23% of air pollution, 50% of climate change, 40% of drink water pollution, and 50% of landfill waste. One organization, fortunately, is seeking to change that.

It’s a sad view that to “save” the earth, we need to eliminate ourselves. There is another viewpoint, however, that we highly recommend you look into. That is from author and botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Nested in the forest canopy in Red River Gorge in Kentucky one can find treehouses that are straight out of a magical storybook. Django Kroner founded The Canopy Crew after combining skills he picked up working for a timber frame home builder and his life’s passion for climbing.

Through their work at Rise, Matt and his team are finding that the more we invest in a healthy, efficient, and durable homes, the more benefits we get out of it—from a financial perspective (lower operating costs, higher resale value) as well as a from a comfort and health perspective. For him, it comes down to health, wealth, and helping the planet.

The environments that we live and work in are critical for our health, well-being, and success. Rarely, however, do people think about how these spaces impact their health and well-being.

We are facing truly global issues in the 21st century that are causing people to raise the alarm to design differently. Amira Ayoub from Cairo, Egypt is one of those people. Amira is USGBC LEED & WELL Faculty, a Living Future and Fitwel Ambassador, and is is the founder of the Living Future Cairo Collaborative and was also awarded as a Living Future Hero for 2019.

Latitude is proud to celebrate CEO Neal Collins, recently named a Rising Phenom by the Oregon Daily Journal of Commerce.