David Butterfield, Chairman of Loreto Bay Company and the founder and President of the Trust for Sustainable Development, the Canadian not-for-profit Developer currently directing the Loreto Bay project, has committed himself to developing sustainable communities and sustainable buildings. The Trust’s mission is to promote the development of leading edge sustainable communities as world models and to provide research and education in the field of sustainable community development.
Recently, Mr. Butterfield completed Shoal Point, a pioneering sustainable 425,000 sq. ft. mixed-use development fronting the Victoria, B.C. harbor. Shoal Point was awarded Best Multi-Family Building in Canada in 2003 and Mr. Butterfield was recognized by the B.C. Government for his “Commitment to Innovation, Energy Efficient and Environmentally-Friendly Development, Affordable Housing, Youth Employment, Live/Work Design, and Public Art, That Extend Beyond the Industry to Enhance the Community in Which he Builds.”
Since 2000, Mr. Butterfield has worked to develop North America's largest sustainable development at Loreto Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico. The town project will have over 6,000 homes on three and a half miles of beachfront property in walkable communities. Among other commitments Loreto Bay promises to create more potable water than it uses, produce more energy from renewables than it consumes, and improve the eco-system of which it is part.
In 2004 Mr. Butterfield was honored, along with Colin Powell and other dignitaries, with the Good Neighbor Award by the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce. At home Mr. Butterfield co-founded, with Ann Mortifee, the Trust for Sustainable Forestry, a Canadian national charitable organization, to promote eco-system based forestry in North America.
Another project of Mr. Butterfield’s won planning awards from Prince Charles’ Society of Social Innovations, The Body Shop, Globe ’92 and the American Institute for Architects.
During the Bamberton years Mr. Butterfield founded the socially responsible South Island Development Cooperative and served as Chairman of the Corporate Advisory Board for Earth Day International. In 1995–1996, as the Town Founder he directed the planning and creation of a new sustainable community of 2,400 homes in Tucson, Arizona, called the Community of Civano.
In 2005 Loreto Bay reached the milestones of the first resident taking occupancy and 500 homes sold. Mr. Butterfield is an active member of the Social Venture Network and is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada and resides in Victoria, British Columbia, Scottsdale, Arizona and Loreto Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico.