The Trust for Sustainable Development is an inter-disciplinary group of professionals committed to envisioning, designing and building sustainable communities (towns and buildings). A small core staff works full-time at the Trust in research, education and project pre-development. During project development, the Trust partners with respected industry professionals, consultants, institutions and neighboring residents and stakeholders.
The founder of the Trust, David Butterfield, is currently the Chairman of Hummingbird Energy, a company whose business is the development, sale and management of turn-key facilities that convert source-separated organic waste into renewable energy.
Mr. Butterfield has guided his TSD team through a cutting-edge process combining in-depth scientific, economic, social and financial analysis with extensive public and government consultation, making him one of the world's prominent experts in "sustainable community" technology.
The Trust has planned, designed, financed and built several highly successful projects ranging from brownfield re-development to sustainable New Towns. For example, the Trust oversaw the creation of an urban prototype for sustainable communities, which has been executed in the award-winning Community of Civano in Tucson, Arizona. The Trust also completed the award winning mixed-use, sustainable building called Shoal Point, on a brownfield site in Victoria, British Columbia. It also planned and developed the first neighbourhood of The Villages of Loreto Bay, a sustainable community in Baja California Sur (South), Mexico.