Developing a Living Community with Matthew Grocoff

When the Living Building Challenge was first conceived in the early 2000's many people had their doubts. Lauded as the world's most rigorous and aspirational green building standard, the challenge was deemed almost impossible. And in many places illegal.

Living Buildings have design and performance imperatives like the building needing to produce more energy than it consumes; all the water used is harvested on-site; materials come from local sources and are non-toxic; the project makes a positive and equitable contribution in the community; agriculture is cultivated; and waste is seen as a resource with no sewer connection.

But what about an entire community based on those same set of green building standards? That's where Matthew Grocoff comes in. He is a founding member of THRIVE Collaborative that is one of a few developers in the world to attempt a Living Community Challenge.

On this episode Matthew talks about how his background buying and retrofitting a turn of the century house to be Net Zero for energy and water helped lead him into his current endeavor of developing Veridian at County Farm.

Veridian is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the US  and will be an all-electric, mixed-income, integrated community with trails, gardens, woods, and playgrounds. Multiple building types are slated to be developed that meshes several different progressive urban forms that will definitely help put this community on the map.

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This podcast isn’t just about ideas—it’s about action. From these conversations, two organizations have emerged to bring regenerative real estate to life:

Latitude Regenerative Real Estate is the world’s first regenerative-focused real estate brokerage, dedicated to aligning values-driven buyers and sellers. With a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions, Latitude also supports purpose-driven developments across North America through strategic marketing and branding services. If you're looking to buy, sell, or amplify a regenerative project, Latitude is your trusted partner.

Hamlet Capital is an investment and development firm committed to building resilient communities rooted in working farms. If you’re developing an agrihood or conservation community, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can turn visionary ideas into thriving, place-based investments.