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our development partners
have skin in the game and
short cuts aren’t made so that
everybody wins in that situa-
tion,” explains Lindquist. “Al-
ternatively our development
partners would have had to
put up a higher per cent of eq-
uity or provide collateral that
matches the cost of the utility
as security if they’re going to
bring on another utility part-
ner. If they’re simply trying
to build it up themselves as a
utility, they will typically need
40 per cent equity.”
Lindquist had extensive
experience in nuclear engi-
neering and business restruc-
turing for companies when
he was first presented with
the unique challenge of de-
veloping sustainable, profit-
able, and renewable utilities
approximately nine years
ago. The developer of Wes-
thills (a large scale develop-
ment project in B.C., current-
ly with more than 350 single
family homes connected to
arguably the most advanced
heating and cooling system
in the world) asked Lindquist
how he might help him to re-
structure a 6,000-unit devel-
opment with 6-million square
feet of commercial mixed-
use and make it profitable.
Lindquist set his mind to the
task and developed a number
of innovations that reduced
