Sitting down with us is Jonathan Westeinde, CEO and co-founder of Windmill Development Group, a visionary real estate development company dedicated to transforming conventional development practices He is an industry-recognized expert on green development and a regular speaker and panelist at conferences. Hear his thoughts on the future of building and sustainability in Canada.
Topics covered include:
- Technologies that optimize the use of land, water, air, energy and building materials towards a goal of zero ecological footprint buildings.
- Profitability and government incentives.
- LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design); what it is and how to achieve it.
- The meaning of people+planet+profits.
- Jonathan’s most common recommendations to those entering green development.
- The business world’s perception of green buildings, LEED and corporate image.
- Timelines and forecasting of green development.
- Windmill’s One Planet Living Impact Fund.
A bit about our guest…
Jonathan Westeinde is founder and CEO of the Windmill Development Group, one of Canada’s most well-known green building developers. Windmill has completed over $1B of developments since inception in 2003 with a strong pipeline of future projects in place. Jonathan is specifically interested in creating alternative financing vehicles to embed sustainability into projects and is a recognized leader in Canada for finding innovative solutions for non-conventional lifecycle financing issues. This ingenuity has led to firsts in the green building industry, including innovative partnerships to create zero carbon district energy systems, energy services contracts to introduce geothermal, and green loans. Jonathan’s most recent focus has been a new targeted sustainable communities impact investment fund which is currently underway.
Prior to founding Windmill Jonathan was a partner in Venbridge, a venture capital services firm that was a partnership with Gowlings Law firm. Prior to that he was a partner in LOSC, Inc., a Boston based venture capital firm, and held senior positions with Corel Corporation and Exocom Consulting after completing his MBA.
Jonathan sits on a number of profit and non-profit boards.
Jonathan holds an MBA from Trinity College, Ireland and a BA Economics from the University of Western Ontario.
Links:
Windmill Development Group: Website
jonathan@windmilldevelopments.com
Jonathan Westeinde on LinkedIn
Natural Capitalism: Book
One Planet Living: Website
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