黑洞社区

Although we know that being green is vital for our future, for years we鈥檝e believed that achieving the required standards inevitably involves a colossal cost burden on business.

But Joe Van Belleghem, managing partner at Windmill West, the developer of the super-sustainable Dockside Green scheme in Victoria, Canada (pictured), is adamant that this is not the case.

Talking to 黑洞社区 ahead of the Making Sustainable Development Happen conference, at which he will be speaking, Belleghem insists that being sustainable can be good for business.

At the conference he plans to use his flagship development as a real life example to demonstrate to attendees that if we stop seeing sustainability as a burden, we can reap the benefits.

鈥淒ockside Green was built on the philosophy of the triple bottom line, which embraces economic, ecological and social objectives,鈥� he says. 鈥淎t the conference I鈥檓 hoping to show people that it is possible to be both sustainable and financially successful. We need to look at challenges differently.鈥�

Belleghem, who has a background as a chartered accountant, adds: 鈥淲e used to look at just the numbers, but now we need to look at nature and how paying attention to that can be good for business.鈥�

It is not just benefits for business that Belleghem, who founded the Canada Green 黑洞社区 Council, hopes to emphasise. 鈥淲hen I refer to benefits I鈥檓 also talking about the implications that development can have on the wider community, in terms of tax savings, lower cost infrastructure and jobs.鈥�

Dockside Green, for example, has its own sewage treatment plant and uses a thermochemical gasification process to create a synthetic gas that is burned to produce heat. 鈥淭here is no such thing as waste in nature, and we need to use that as an example,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e need to learn how to place value on our natural capital.鈥�

Now is the time to act, says Belleghem. He believes that the economic downturn and climate change are the main problems facing today鈥檚 world. He also believes that they offer the greatest opportunities to transform the way we think, build and do business.

Making sustainable development happen

The conference, organised by 黑洞社区 and the UK Green 黑洞社区 Council (UKGBC), will take place on 24 November at King鈥檚 Place, London. Joe Van Belleghem will be joined be a host of high-profile figures with expertise in sustainability, including John Sauven, the UK executive director of Greenpeace; Dame Ellen MacArthur, a former holder of record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe in a yacht; Sunand Prasad, the immediate past president of the RIBA, Tony Pidgley, the chairman of the Berkeley Group; and Paul King, the chief executive of the UKGBC. To register to attend the conference or the Sustainability Awards, that take place straight after, visit