and piers that make-up the historic fabric of Halifax, a city founded by the British in 1749.
manufactured filler-free product like hardwood and then installed in a commercial building. This responsible point- to-point system gives the end user what’s called ‘LEED Credits’ towards a green building.” “I didn’t know anybody in Campbellton, but I booked a boarding house and bought a train ticket.” According to the Canada Green Building Council, LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, “certifi- cation provides independent, third-party verification that a building, home or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, mate- rials selection and indoor environmental quality.” Halifax, the capital of Canada’s Ocean Playground, was once named the nation’s “ultimate college town” by The Globe and Mail and for good reason: It’s home to six uni- versities and dozens of colleges. Dalhousie University, with the largest campus enrollment in the city at more than 18,000 students, has been like a second home to GB Millwork and Boutilier thinks his company’s FSC certifica-
But it wasn’t all ballrooms and dining halls at the begin- ning. Boutilier detailed an extended period of relying on the low bid tactic just to get the GB Millwork name out in the business community. His persistence led to some- thing invaluable. “We’ve done many jobs for the Nova Scotia Liquor Com- mission, the NSLC,” Boutilier explained. (One of GB Mill- work’s more quirky projects for the NSLC involved working with reclaimed wood from apple boxes and ladders.) “A few years back we were bidding on a job at their Port of Wines location on Larry Uteck Boulevard and quickly came to realize that it was only open to FSC [Forest Stew- ardship Council]registered companies. We were the low bid and took advantage of the year-long construction of the building to obtain our FSC certification. There’s a lot to learn about the Chain of Custody – that’s what the actual tracking of the product is called.”
FSC affiliation has been a boon to Boutilier ever since.
The FSC is committed to sustainable forestry practices, “Including,” Boutilier detailed, “tracking materials from the time they’re harvested in the forest then turned into a
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JULY 2018
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