Green Building Elements

Sustainability Victoria, in partnership with ICLEI/Local Governments for Sustainability Oceania, has been encouraging developers to work in accordance with the ICLEI’s Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Capacity Building Program. This program promotes a ‘bottom line’ that incorporates three measures for success: environmental, social, and financial. In 2004, the City of Victoria requested proposals to redevelop a 15-acre harborfront site using the Triple Bottom Line criteria. Windmill Development Group, partnered with Vancity (Canada’s largest credit union), produced the winning proposal, and the partnership began work on the development of a new-urbanist style community called Dockside Green.

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At the time of purchase, the building site was a brownfield: industrialization, which had pushed Songhee and Esquimalt tribes off of the land in the early 20th century, had left it a wasteland. Now first-phase construction is nearing completion on some of the site’s 1.3 million sq. ft. of mixed use space; the development’s first residential units are scheduled for occupancy next month. Eventually 2,500 people are expected to live at Dockside Green, and in addition to its residential units, the community will house retail, office and light industrial spaces.

The Dockside Green development is unique for several reasons:

• It will be the first community in North America to aim for LEED Platinum certification for all 26 of its buildings.
• It will have a sewage treatment facility on-site — an important step forward, since the City of Victoria currently does not treat its sewage. After it is treated, the wastewater will be reused for non-potable purposes, thereby reducing demand upon the city water supply.
• The development will produce its own heat from waste wood using a biomass gasification process that is already used in Europe. Because the buildings at Dockside Green employ so many energy-efficient technologies and materials, the developers hope that the community will actually be able to produce more heat than it uses, allowing it to sell some of the surplus to customers off-site. In an excerpt from Elemente Magazine, Dockside Green Managing Partner Joe Van Belleghem states, “We have a shot right now to be the first community in North America to be greenhouse gas positive.”

The Dockside Green developers’ involvement of native tribes provides a fascinating footnote to the project’s story. Having made the commitment to being a healing force for the land and for the cultures that have shared that land, Dockside began a dialogue with the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations in 2006. This resulted in a “Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation and Communication,” which established a working relationship among all parties. First Nation members have participated in training and employment programs, contributed public art, and had some oversight of the archeological work done on site.

To view a videotaped overview of the project, visit “Dockside Green — From the Ground Up” on the Dockside Green website.

Image credit: Dockside Green

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