Waste Not.
They're two words we have always lived by at North on Sixty.
Our business spans the entire life cycle - from forest management, to design/build, to restoration, and everything in between. We're involved every step of the way because our philosophy is fundamentally holistic - and frankly, we love it all. Ultimately, minimizing waste is about creating harmony between people and their environment - which is the guiding principle in all that we do. Here are some of the ways we live that philosophy:
Wood Sourcing
We salvage wood from sources that minimize or eliminate environmental impact; it so happens that this wood often comes with its own interesting stories. We've used wood from barns, farmhouses, warehouses, factories, plane hangars, bridges, and the list goes on.
All of our recycled and water-recovered woods have been sourced within 300 kilometres of our shop, as have 90% of our woods from managed forests.
Our forest
"North on Sixty" is a partner in the Eastern Ontario Model Forest (EOMF) – Forest Certification Program. The EOMF is certified by SmartWood of the Rainforest Alliance as meeting the Principles and Criteria for the environmental, economic and social standards of the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC). The EOMF manages an FSC® certificate (SW-FM/COC 000 -232) on behalf of private woodlot and community forest owners, in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Forest Region of Eastern Ontario, that enables them to share the benefits and costs of FSC-certification by certifying their lands under this one certificate. Visit: eomf.on.ca/certification
Design
We over-engineer our products. We employ impassioned craftsmanship and top-quality materials, without exception. We build things that will last, and last, and last - ultimately one of the most important elements of conservation.
Many of our design/build projects are also recognized for their ability to use space efficiently (allowing for a smaller physical footprint) and even use natural light efficiently (allowing for less electricity usage).
Facilities
If at some point you’re able to visit our facilities, just outside of Algonquin Park, you’ll see very quickly that the use of salvaged wood is just one component of our pursuit of sustainable production.
In the original construction of our site, we positioned the buildings in a way that allowed us to keep all of the land's healthy, mature trees.
To heat our buildings we use an outdoor wood boiler to heat a mix of food-grade glycol and water, which then gets pumped through more than two kilometers of plastic tubing. The wood comes from managed forests, shop cutoffs, and our sawmill’s slabwood.
We keep to an absolute minimum the packaging coming into our shop, and source-separate and reuse cardboard for the packaging going out.
And, with the exception of the inevitable cutoffs from cabinet production, our entire operation typically produces less than one garbage bag per week.
Partners
We source equipment, parts, and input materials from companies that we know to be leaders in sustainability and quality. We also collaborate with other forward-thinking companies and organizations, and share our philosophy with everyone we meet along the way.