What is the Living Building Challenge and why does it matter for our site?

When HADSCAL started thinking seriously about what the new campus should be, one question kept coming up: what does it really mean to build sustainably? Not just ticking boxes on an environmental checklist, but genuinely doing things differently in a way that could inspire the people who use the campus every day.

That question led us to the Living Building Challenge.

The Living Building Challenge is widely regarded as the most ambitious and rigorous green building standard in the world. Developed in the United States and adopted by progressive developers and communities globally, it sets out a vision of buildings that actively give back. Buildings that generate more energy than they use, capture and treat their own water, and are made entirely from non-toxic, sustainably sourced materials. They are designed to be beautiful, equitable and deeply connected to the place they sit in. Together, these factors create sites that feed into the wellbeing of communities. It's an extraordinary standard. And if we're honest, full certification is an ambitious goal for a site of our size and with the practical constraints we're working within. However, the Living Building Challenge gives us a framework: seven principles covering place, water, energy, health, materials, equity and beauty that keeps our ambitions raised high.

In practice, for the Hay Community Campus, that means:

• Solar PV on every rooftop and a solar canopy over the car park

• Air or ground source heat pumps instead of gas

• A pond that does drainage work and supports biodiversity at the same time

• Lighting designed to protect Hay's precious dark skies

• Materials chosen for their environmental credentials as much as their appearance

• EV charging built in from the start

• And a community growing space that connects people with the land on their doorstep.

The Living Building Challenge reminds us that sustainable buildings don't just emerge from good intentions, but require deliberate, disciplined choices at every turn.

For a treasured town in the stunning Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, we think Hay deserves that level of ambition.