Although Rhinebeck, New York has been the focal point of of the papparazi for the Chelsea Clinton wedding, it's also famous in the sustainability community for the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. The Omega Institute's Center for Sustainable Living, a water reclamation facility and environmental education center, was selected for the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment Top 10 Green Projects Award for 2010. BNIM was the architect for the project and worked with John Todd Ecological Design to integrate the Eco-Machine technology central to the project's function. The Living Building Challenge requires buildings to be informed by their eco-region's characteristics; generate all of their own energy with renewable resources; capture and treat all of their water; operate efficiently; and be designed for maximum beauty.

There are six performance areas—site, energy, materials, water, indoor quality, and beauty & inspiration—and certain criteria to be met in each category in order for a building to be designated a Living Building. A program of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, the Living Building Challenge is attempting to push the boundaries of green building and sustainable architecture to help our society move quickly to a state of balance between natural and built environments. "Inherent to any solution to our environment's problems has to be the understanding of the essential interconnection between ourselves, nature and each other," said said Skip Backus, chief executive officer at Omega and general project manager for the OCSL.