February 8, 2005
Stittsville News

Prestigious business award for Christopher Sweetnam-Holmes

A youthful architect and environmentally-friendly real estate developer who grew up in Stittsville has received a prestigious business award.

Christopher Sweetnam-Holmes, a 29-year-old entrepreneur, was one of five recipients of the McGill Management Achievement Award in Montréal last Friday.

This is a national award given each year to Canadian business leaders who have made a significant contribution to the Canadian economy and way of life. Other recipients this year were high achieving CEO, Dominic D’Alessandro, hockey legend and now federal cabinet minister Ken Dryden, Serge Godin and Guylaine Saucier. Past recipients of the McGill Management Achievement Awards, which have been presented for a quarter of a century, have included Paul Tellier, former CEO of Bombardier; former Magna International head Belinda Stronach; and Power Corporation’s Paul Desmarais.

Christopher Sweetnam-Holmes is the founder of an environmentally friendly development company, ECOCITÉ, which develops and builds innovative urban green housing. Holder of a Bachelor of Environmental Design Studies in Architecture from Dalhousie University in Halifax, as well as a Bachelor of International Business degree from Carleton University, Mr. Sweetnam-Holmes is passionate about the environment and believes that social and environmental entrepreneurship can be a powerful way to affect change.

He has translated this belief into the development of his EcoCondo and ECOCITÉ concepts for aggressively green, innovatively designed urban housing.

He built a prototype EcoCondo project in Montréal. He has now been involved with other partners and investors in developing a 25-unit EcoCondo project next to the Rideau Canal in the Glebe area in Ottawa. Within five days of launching this innovative project, over 30 percent of the units were reserved.

Mr. Sweetnam-Holmes is now partnering with other real estate developers and organizations to expand his ECOCITÉ concept across Canada.

The EcoCondo concept offers urban lifestyle but with a respect for nature and built in harmony with it.

The award gives me the opportunity to promote social and environmental entrepreneurship,” Mr. Sweetnam-Holmes said. Winner of the Berkeley Prize for Architectural Design Excellence from the university of California at Berkeley in 2001, Mr. Sweetnam-Holmes has been featured in numerous media for his innovative housing ideas. Most recently, he was included in “The Great Warming”, a major documentary series that aired on the Discovery Channel and PBS. A resident of Montréal, Mr. Sweetnam-Holmes still retains close ties to Stittsville where he grew up. He is the nephew of well-known businessman, Phil Sweetnam.

Mr. Sweetnam-Holmes owns Med Servi Systems Canada Ltd., on Sweetnam Drive in Stittsville, a company which has supplied acupuncture supplies across North America since the 1970s when it was started by Mr. Sweetnam-Holmes’ mother, the late Carol Sweetnam.

For the past two years, Mr. Sweetnam-Holmes has been a guest speaker at Sacred Heart High School in Stittsville, talking to students about architecture.

Sweetnam-Holmes is able to capture the students’ imagination, thanks to his great communication skills and his passion for architecture, says his uncle, Phil Sweetnam.
Mr. Sweetnam-Holmes is so passionate about the education of students because of his belief that business can be used to solve environmental problems through social and environmental entrepreneurship.

“It’s about inspiring the students to feel like it’s a legitimate path to take,” Sweetnam-Holmes says.