Our Mission
Windmill aims to transform the way we build and live
Windmill Developments was founded in 2003 by Jonathan Westeinde and a group of like-minded thinkers and practitioners.
Like a tech start-up, Windmill set out to disrupt the old order.
Our team believed real estate development was ripe for innovation, that it offered the ideal opportunity to make a big impact in the fight against climate change.
We still believe this today, but we’ve evolved our thinking. We’re not simply aiming to do better. We’re aiming for One Planet Living – co-creating regenerative communities. Communities where humans and nature thrive in a mutually beneficial relationship.
This is more than “sustainable” living – it’s a whole systems approach that dynamically renews all life.
One Planet Living
A world vision and a framework for sustainable living
One Planet Living is both a vision and a holistic framework for sustainable living. As the name suggests, it’s based on the fact that we have just one planet – and its resources are limited.
The goal of One Planet Living is to help people everywhere live happy, healthy lives within the finite resources of our planet.
One Planet Living comprises 10 principles to achieve environmental and social sustainability:
- Health & happiness
- Equity & local economy
- Culture & community
- Land & nature
- Sustainable water
- Local & sustainable food
- Travel & transport
- Materials & products
- Zero waste
- Zero carbon energy
We’ve adopted the One Planet Living framework to develop, map, track and report on our company’s own sustainability efforts.
We also apply the 10 One Planet Living principles to all of our development projects, to our advisory work and our investment approach.
This ensures our projects don’t just deliver a financial return but also social and ecological impacts that are tangible and measurable.
Learn more about
One Planet Living >
One Planet Living
and the
One Planet Living Fund.
Explained.
Windmill Group A History of Firsts
Right from the start, sustainability was baked into Windmill’s DNA.
The first Windmill project, Victoria’s ground-breaking Dockside Green, laid the foundation to transform the way we build. Dockside Green was certified as Canada’s first LEED Platinum for Communities development.
Since then, we’ve continued to innovate and push sustainability boundaries in everything we do. Here are a few examples of the pioneering work we have initiated over the years.
-
2003
Dockside Green
Canada’s first community-scale blackwater treatment and biomass district energy system. First developer-initiated Indigenous Benefits Agreement in Canada. -
2007
Acqua Vento
First LEED Platinum Mixed-Use Building in Canada. First Green Loan in Canada. -
2007-
2011The Currents & Arch Lofts
First LEED Platinum mixed-use developments in Eastern Canada. -
2011
Cathedral Hill
First use of residential VRF system in eastern Canada. Windmill’s first Joint Venture with the Anglican Church. -
2011
77 Bloor (LEED Gold Retrofit)
First design-build, guaranteed performance retrofit under the Windmill/Ledcor Renew partnership. -
2012
The Eddy
First fully-automated “puzzle parking” system in Ontario. Windmill’s first use of geothermal. -
2015
Zibi
First One Planet Living Community master plan in Canada. First use of One Planet Living to define shared values for a Developer-Indigenous partnership in Canada. -
2017
The Plant
First urban infill residential project in Canada developed around the theme of urban agriculture. -
2021
One Planet Living Real Estate Fund
First closing of $46M announced by Windmill and partner Epic Investment Services. -
2022
Stone Abbey
First project funded through the One Planet Living Real Estate Fund to break ground.
The Windmill name
Sparked from a
historic friendship
Back in 2002, we formulated the business plan for Windmill with the goal of being a leader in sustainable real estate development in Canada. We considered various sustainability themed names, but most had already been taken.
At the same time, John Westeinde Sr. was becoming known around Ottawa as “Mr. Windmill.” This was for his decade-long effort to get an authentic Dutch windmill built at Ottawa’s Dow’s Lake to commemorate the enduring friendship created between Holland and Canada when the Canadians liberated Holland at the end of WWII.
At that point, wind energy had not yet taken off, so the name Windmill Developments was available. We thought there was a nice sense of alignment between the global friendship my father was seeking to honour and our sustainability aspirations, particularly since our initial business plan had us getting much deeper into renewable energy production.
Over two decades later, we’re proud to say we’ve largely hit the mark of becoming a leader in sustainable real estate development in Canada. And, as most businesses do, we’ve evolved away from wind energy production but not from the underlying value of partnerships that my father’s authentic Dutch windmill represents.
Jonathan Westeinde
Founder
“[Zibi] is…a microcosm of the challenge we face globally. How can different people, different cultures come together and take the best of their heritages and build a new culture of sustainability?”