As Schooner Bay enters a crucial period of growth, the key developer says the project stands to save more than $300 million through its measured, environmentally conscious approach to sustainable growth.

Orjan Lindroth, the president of the Lindroth Development Company, said the "ecological dividend" for the Abaco project proves that a green movement can also be profitable.

"If you take a different approach where you begin more slowly and grow organically, you end up passing the pace of the traditional method," he told Guardian Business.

"Developers often seek an absorption rate that is unrealistic. It doesn't follow the natural flow and rhythm of the place. They have to sell quickly and they fail. You start as a hamlet, move to a village and eventually it turns into a small town."

The Schooner Bay development, which first began construction in 2008, has gradually expanded since the harbor was installed.

Including homes, condominiums and stores, the development has followed a strict environmental code that has resulted in millions in savings.

According to a recent report obtained by Guardian Business, Steve Mouzon, the head of an architecture and urban design firm in Florida, said this ecological dividend is the result of novel approaches to landscaping, earthwork, water supply and preserving the natural assets of the 320-acre property.

For example, Schooner Bay runs an on-site nursery that provides all the required plant material for landscaping.

"Orjan [Lindroth] plants heavily to create a subtopical paradise," he report said, "but because the 200,000 trees he expects to plant will all be grown from seedlings in the nursery over several years rather than bought at mature size elsewhere, the savings would be approximately $38.8 million."

Mouzon added that it costs $6 to propagate and grow a tree, where it's $200 to buy a large tree.

Other creative, ecological approaches to business include capturing rainwater and treating it rather than buying it elsewhere, which can be used for flushing toilets and irrigation.

The reuse of this water is expected to save Schooner Bay $2.5 million per year.

When building dunes, which turned lower-value lots with no view into oceanfront lots by elevating them, the developer used spoils from dredging the harbor.

"Building a dune by hauling sand onto the site would have cost about $7.5 million, but using harbor spoils cost only $200,000, for a dividend of $7.3 million.

All told, the report highlighted more than a dozen ways of using the environment to achieve cost savings on development.

Lindroth told Guardian Business that there is a misconception that the green movement is not commercial. This fact is even more significant, he pointed out, in a country such as The Bahamas that depends on the environment for tourism.

"We have forgotten that when we tear down a forest, we're losing equity," he added.

"The site on Schooner Bay also has a great deal of top soil - a rarity for The Bahamas. Most developers think they can't afford to do what I'm doing - I say the reverse."

In traditional development, when buildings all go up at once, it puts considerable pressure on stakeholders to sell quickly or they fail, according to Lindroth.

Investors and banks are to blame as well, he pointed out.

In order to get financing, projects must be of a certain size to catch attention.

At Schooner Bay, five houses are now complete. A further 10 houses are expected to be finished in the late winter, and five more just begin construction around Christmas.

Sales are reported to be steady, with a mix of foreign and local investors.

The residences and marina will soon be joined by a mix of businesses and commerce as the Schooner Bay project pushes forward in 2012.

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