BuildGreen Solutions walks the talk.  From the beginning, this organization has been home to individuals who care passionately about our global impacts as people and as a company – and strive to make positive contributions to the environment and our communities.

BuildGreen Solutions (originally BuildGreen Developments) was founded by Canadian green building pioneer Joe Van Belleghem. From the outset, BuildGreen was an innovator in an emerging field, as Joe applied a developer’s mindset to create leading-edge green projects.  One of Joe’s first projects was the Vancouver Island Technology Park, the first LEED certification awarded in Canada.  BuildGreen became part of the Windmill Developments family of companies, as both companies looked to leverage their synergies and potential for impact. Together, they quickly prevailed in a bidding competition for 15 acres of polluted waterfront land in Victoria, which was to become the precedent-setting Dockside Green.

BuildGreen has had a long history of innovation in Canada, including being involved in the first LEED Certified project in Canada, the first LEED Platinum mixed-use residential projects (Vento project in Calgary), and the highest scoring LEED project in history, at Dockside Green.  BuildGreen grew organically over time, drawing on the expertise of pioneering green building practitioners such as Lindsay Cole, Alex Zimmerman, Jack Meredith and Rodney Wilts.  In total BuildGreen has managed over 40 LEED projects in Canada, the US and Mexico.

In 2008 the company was reorganized to bring in Rodney Wilts and Scott Demark as full partners, joining Windmill partners Jamie James and Jonathan Westeinde.  The partners came together to broaden their impacts, motivated in each case by a pressing concern for the health of our planet and communities.  David Herlihey joined BuildGreen in 2009 and Katie Paris re-joined the company in January 2010.  The company continues to work with a client base of top architects, public sector organizations and private and institutional developers.

While BuildGreen still provides LEED consulting, the current partners are taking the company beyond LEED.  Key services now include facilitating integrated design and helping clients achieve carbon-neutrality in their developments.  BuildGreen is one of the few consulting companies in green buildings which understands and provides new and innovative green development frameworks, such as One Planet Communities and the Living Building Challenge, for clients whose aim is to build regenerative, zero-carbon buildings and communities.

We operate our company according to triple bottom line principles, striving to balance social, economic and environmental returns in our projects and our operations.  We have a responsibility to be positive agents of change, and we work with partners who share these values.