Corporate profile

Innovative urban design, focused on restorative ecology and mimicking nature’s closed-loop water and energy cycles, is our strength. We promote decision-making based on sound principles of aquatic ecology to enhance value, restore damaged ecosystems and build healthy, beautiful landscapes that rejuvenate their citizens. All our projects have at their heart the goal of maintaining aquatic ecosystems in proper functioning condition to ensure that they can continue to provide ecological and social values as part of a stable economy (triple-bottom line).

We design and build projects that are efficient, effective and affordable both for the owner and for the community. Smart development can provide both economic and ecological benefits and can enhance the communities in which we live and work. Our solid understanding of the science of freshwater ecology ensures that our projects go beyond looking green, and function properly in both the short and long-term. We believe in an integrated team approach to sustainable planning and design. We look for ways to meet the needs of all parties, to the greatest extent possible, in order to reduce costs caused by red-tape, delays and wasted effort and redirect that energy into creating value. We work closely with other professionals to ensure that our designs are integrated with other aspects of the project and we are continually seeking new ideas and approaches from across North America and around the world. Our support of graduate students ensures that our firm remains on the leading edge of new design practices and innovative strategies for integrated water management, sustainable green development and advances in freshwater ecological science.

Our most recent projects include an interdisciplinary Integrated Resource Management study that examined opportunities to integrate energy and water, and derive heat, energy and revenue from solid and liquid waste streams for communities at all scales. Our role at Dockside Green, the first LEED™ platinum community in the world, was to integrate rainwater capture with on-site sewage treatment and reclaimed water re-use, rebuild a stream on site and celebrate the role of water. This enhanced value by putting water back into the forefront of design. We were also a member of the Southeast False Creek 2010 Vancouver Olympic Village design team where our focus was on minimizing stormwater by capturing rainwater and using it for toilet flushing and irrigation, thus reducing the pressure on Vancouver’s precious potable water supply. This lesson of “fit-for-purpose” water use was showcased when the world’s athletes visited Vancouver in 2010. The senior staff of the company served as Special Advisors to the British Columbia Government on Water Policy and Green Cities Initiative programs, integrating these policies with the Climate Change Action Plan.