Duncan Wilcock
Duncan Wilcock is a Cowichan Zero Hero. He works at Gillingham Cabinets, an Island company that makes kitchen cabinets. In the past few years, they have dramatically reduced the amount of waste they produce, and have cut their carbon footprint by over 50% at the same time.
They have achieved these results primarily by making a small adjustment to how they handle their wood offcuts. Previously, they had simply thrown them into the garbage bin, and paid a high price to have this heavy material disposed of. But after taking part in the Climate Smart Program, they realized that their wood offcuts end up decomposing in the landfill and producing methane – a very harmful greenhouse gas.
Gillingham Cabinets was the first kitchen cabinet maker on Vancouver Island to participate in the Climate Smart Program – an initiative that helps businesses measure and reduce their carbon footprint, and identify efficiencies that can lead to cost savings.
Now Gillingham Cabinets takes the offcuts to Steel Pacific Recycling, where they are used to create energy in an Island pulp mill. The offcuts are burned at a very high heat to minimize emissions and maximize heat recovery. As a bonus, Duncan has discovered that it costs Gillingham Cabinets much less to find a new use for what they had was previously considered to be garbage.
In recent years, Gillingham Cabinets has made other adjustments to their processes that benefit their customers and the environment. For example, they use eco-friendly, low-emissions wood panels that are made from 100% recycled fibers, and computer software to optimize where the pieces are cut from each sheet of wood.
Duncan says he comes by his commitment to waste reduction honestly: he’s an engineer, and he believes that engineers can’t help but seek out and eliminate inefficiencies. For him, being green-minded means making lots of little changes to processes and systems to make sure all materials are being used as efficiently as possible. Working for Gillingham Cabinets is obviously a good fit, especially for someone who gets around town on a scooter to keep his individual carbon footprint low. For us, Duncan is a Zero Hero.
Duncan says: “It’s incredibly inefficient to throw things out. I try to live each day like my grandpa did – frugally. Not surprisingly, he also was an engineer.”
