When Joe Van Belleghem first got into green building with the transformation of Glendale Hospital into the Vancouver Island Technology Park (VITP), he admits his "motives were not holistic. I just wanted to distinguish the product in the marketplace, to get some free press and publicity."
But Van Belleghem found that creating environmentally benign structures made economic sense for the owner and the community-and at a personal level restored his interest in being a developer.
Now, with a maturing vision of socially, environmentally and economically beneficial building design, Van Belleghem is the push behind the largest redevelopment in Victoria's history: Dockside Green, which at buildout will comprise 26 residential, retail, office and light industrial structures housing 2,500 people and totaling more than 1 million square feet on a 15-acre site which was a contaminated blight on the edge of the Inner Harbour for decades.
But when Van Belleghem was hired by the B.C.
