Local Green-building Consultant Named Living Building Hero

WILLIAMSTOWN — Charley Stevenson, owner of Integrated Eco Strategy (IES), a Williamstown firm that facilitates sustainable and regenerative building design, renovation, and construction, was named a 2015 Living Building Hero. The award was presented at the Living Future unConference in Seattle.

The International Living Future Institute administers the Living Building Challenge, the most far-reaching and challenging green-building certification system in the world. The program demands regenerative design solutions — building projects that go beyond harm reduction and actually improve the local environment. For example, each project must generate all the energy it will use on site, harvest and treat all its own potable water, manage stormwater and wastewater without relying on municipal drains, avoid toxic building materials, and include significant edible landscape.

Projects are not certified until they pass a rigorous audit to ensure compliance with all 20 imperatives around the seven ‘petal’ themes of site, water, energy, beauty, healthy, equity, and materials. Actual energy and water bills are used to prove that the project meets net-zero energy and water goals for an entire year.

Stevenson was recognized for his firm’s leadership on multiple projects in Massachusetts. IES is currently engaged in four living-building projects: the Class of 1966 Environmental Center at Williams College, the Kern Center at Hampshire College, the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, and the Lloyd Center for the Environment in Dartmouth.