Portfolio

BuildGreen has an established track record of facilitating and enabling the continent’s greenest developments. BuildGreen was involved in some of the first LEED projects in North America, and some of the first Platinum projects. We continue to innovate with consulting experience with some of the first LEED for Neighborhood Developments projects, and ‘zero carbon/zero waste’ One Planet Communities. A sampling of our consulting and project management projects includes:

Development Management Sample Projects

Oxfam

BuildGreen is acting as development manager, Integrated Design Process facilitator, and LEED consultant for Oxfam Canada’s new national headquarters. The building is aiming for LEED-CI Gold, and is being undertaken with the limited budget of a charity. Key focus areas include enhancing daylighting and optimizing indoor air quality for the occupants.

The Currents

BuildGreen provided sustainability and project management services for this mixed-use condominium project in Ottawa. It has been registered as LEED Platinum. One of the striking features of the building is a solar air heater along the south façade of the building. This system not only substantially reduces operating costs, and greenhouse gas emissions, it was also less expensive than the cladding on the remainder of the building.

Whitewater Village

BuildGreen is providing sustainability and project management experience for this fractional ownership cottage development. This project provides BuildGreen with current experience working in rural areas, and combining greenspace protection with environmentally responsible building.

Earth Embassy

Designed to be a hub for sustainability-based activities in Ottawa, the Earth Embassy will bring together green businesses and ENGO’s in one state of the art green building. Located in downtown Ottawa, the Earth Embassy will serve as an advocacy centre for sustainability. In addition to the office and commercial space, the Earth Embassy will feature residential units built to LEED Platinum standards.

Sustainability Consulting Sample Projects

Centre for Construction Trades and Building Sciences 

BuildGreen is acting as sustainability consultants and is facilitating the Integrated Design Process between the faculty members and the design team for this $100m project. This is an extensive engagement, starting with defining sustainability objectives, providing guidance on targets and strategies, advising on RFQ and RFP documents, and ultimately ensuring that the sustainability objectives of the college are met.

Tridel

Jamie James, Partner is Sustainability Advisor to the Canada’s largest highrise condominium developer.  Over the past 6 years, BuildGreen has helped to transition the market leader to a green building leader, with over 4.5 million square feet of new new construction pursuing LEED certification.  That represents approximately 25% of all of the LEED highrise residential floor area in Canada.  In addition, we’ve worked with the client on feasibility assessments and business case development for on-site clean power generation, renewables and geoexchange systems.  And we help advance the company’s research and development agenda by testing new products and green building approaches. 

Hill East

BuildGreen was engaged through One Planet Communities to create the Sustainability Action Plan for this proposed zero carbon, zero waste mixed-use community in Washington, DC. The Sustainability Action Plan outlined strategies for on-site renewable energy generation, a sustainable transportation strategy, waste minimization techniques, and outlined standards for green construction.

Acqua + Vento

BuildGreen provided sustainability and LEED consulting for the first LEED Platinum mixed-use residential building in Canada. As another first, Vento was the first building in Alberta to use rainwater to flush toilets. As a pioneering LEED project BuildGreen helped establish the supply chain to make Platinum possible.

Dockside Green

Dockside Green, the largest development in Victoria’s history, involves the reclamation and redevelopment of 15 acres of formerly contaminated industrial waterfront property. The project includes commercial, residential, live/work, work/live, and light-industrial uses. With a LEED Platinum rating targeted for each building on site, and the highest LEED certification rating in history on Phase I, the project is a global showcase for large-scale integrated sustainable development. BuildGreen has been a key sustainability consultant, working closely with our parent company, Windmill Development’s, the site’s original co-developer. 

Newtonbrook Plaza redevelopment

BuildGreen is the sustainability consultant on a multi-acre high density redevelopment project on Yonge Street in Toronto.  We are currently assessing the feasibility of a community energy system, as well as advanced stormwater management systems. 

Green Financial Consulting

Groupe Pacfic

BuildGreen has been engaged to coordinate the development of the financial costing model for a large-scale zero carbon development in Montreal. Our team is tasked with ensuring the project meets their lofty sustainability goals, while still being commercially viable for the developer. BuildGreen is also providing sustainability consulting, including spearheading the zero carbon aspect of the development.

Green Loans

BuildGreen trademarked a unique green building loan strategy, which we have implemented in Calgary, Ottawa and Victoria.  We also worked with the Toronto Atmospheric Fund to set up a green loan program for new condominium construction in Toronto (which is now responsible for incremental cost financing on over 4.5 million square feet of new condominium construction). The Green Loan links a special interest lender to the Strata Corporation by way of commitments agreed to with the developer.  Following construction and extensive building performance modeling, the lender advances a loan to the Strata Corporation, which in turn reimburses the developer for the incremental costs of equipment and material installed in the building to achieve a targeted energy performance benchmark.

Buildgreen is Windmill Development Group company