Everything from the WTC to stadiums are scrambling for LEED certification these days, clambering to ride the green trend in building and show how eco-friendly they are. But one luxury housing community has taken the trophy, gaining the highest LEED score in the world after building the community to Platinum LEED standards. Racking up 63 out of 70 possible points, the community beat out Wisconsin's Aldo Leopold Legacy Center, which once held the top score of 61. (Bank of America, are you sweating?)

Dockside Green in Victoria, Canada is turning some envious heads in the green building industry with its two condo buildings, townhomes and commercial space. Highlights include on-site sewage treatment and water re-use, store water-capture systems via green roofs, cisterns, bio-swales and bio-filtration that channel the water into a stream flowing through the community. So pastoral.

The community’s energy systems makes them greenhouse gas-neutral and also could allow it to be a net energy provider through its biomass gasification plant. The plant converts local wood waste into clean burning gas for heat and hot water. When tenants need to get around, they can use the Smart Car co-op. And of course the community houses Energy Star appliances and efficiency features like heat recovery ventilation units, Low E double glazed windows, and exterior blinds on the sunny sides of the buildings.

The score alone proves that this building is more than a publicity stunt, but just in case some are skeptical, the development set themselves up for achieving their goal by setting a $1 million penalty for failure. If they didn’t hit their goal, they would have paid $1 million to the city to be used for triple-bottom-line projects. I’m sure the city will gain quite a bit more than $1 million through the completion of this project.

And all this is just phase 1. The rest of the $1.2 billion project will eventually have 1,000 housing units…and will be a seriously cool place to live.

Via Ecofriend, Metaefficient, Canada.com

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