As the number of green-minded Canadians who re-looking to be at eco-friendly places for vacations is continuously rising, environmentally conscious hotels, resorts and lodges are turning out like natural mushrooms.

Whitewater Village, a 38-cottage eco-resort designed by Windmill Developments, is just the new addition to the increasing number of such vacation sites across the country.

The development features geothermal heating and cooling, solar hot water and electricity and will begin in spring next year along the Ottawa River.

The development is surrounded by a 4,000-acre land trust to block additional development, plans to be carbon neutral. It will also have a peat moss sanitation arrangement.

For the construction of the exterior of the cottages, the Forest Stewardship Council certified logs will be used.

Interior features of the cottages will include formaldehyde-free kitchen cabinets, recycled-paper countertops, bamboo floors and wool carpets.

Jonathan Westeinde, managing partner of Windmill, said, "We feel it's a fairly untapped market. It's a little outside the box for what we do but part of the reason we're there is it interests me a lot. When you look at the market for green and sustainable, you're getting downtown urban condo dwellers and you're getting a lot of cottage owners".

Windmill, having urban condominiums as its prinicpa focus, has developed such leading-edge projects as The Currents in Ottawa, The Bridges  in Calgary and Dockside Green in Victoria.

All the projects have been developed according to leadership in energy and environmental design(LEED) standards. All the standards will also be applied in the eco-resort.