This section sets the context for this project and establishes the project’s potential to change peoples’ perception of relationships of built environments, people, prosperity and the planet. It reviews Ball State history of sustainability leadership, and current efforts to take this leadership to the next level. It introduces the Land Design Institute (LDI), its global education for sustainability networking, and its proposed LandLab green technology demonstration site. It reviews the LandLab as the Midwest regional lab of a global network, as a resource balance site management system, and as an eco-balance designTM laboratory.