Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment

CCME Honours Firms Showing Innovation and Leadership

  Six Canadian organizations have been selected as winners of the fourth annual CCME Pollution Prevention Awards. Each year, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) honours organizations showing innovation and leadership in the area of pollution prevention.  

Conoco Canada Ltd. of Calgary is a winner in two categories—Medium-sized Business and Greenhouse Gas Reductions. By modifying existing processes and equipment—rather than investing in new, expensive equipment or control technology—the firm has achieved a 95 percent reduction in flaring and venting of natural gas. This has resulted in significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. The company recouped its investment in just two months and now annually recovers natural gas volumes worth more than $1 million.

 Small Business Award—Hydro One Remote Communities Inc. of Thunder Bay, Ontario for its installation of renewable energy technologies in remote communities, thus reducing reliance on diesel power. By installing wind turbines and by partnering with a First Nations community to provide hydroelectric power, carbon dioxide--one of the major greenhouse gases--and other priority air pollutants have been significantly reduced. Economic benefits include decreased fuel expenditures and job creation in the remote communities.

 Medium-sized Business Award—Irving Pulp & Paper Ltd. of Saint John, New Brunswick for using innovative technologies to prevent pollution, rather than relying on treatment of pulp mill effluent after-the-fact. The mill’s wastewater is now completely non-toxic and less harmful to fish health and habitat of the Saint John River.  

 Large Business Award—Dow Chemical (Western Canada Operations) at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta for eliminating the use of liquid chlorine in its plastic manufacturing process. By converting to a process that uses chlorine gas, Dow was able to eliminate emissions from CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons)--a key contributor to depletion of the ozone layer--and reduce carbon dioxide emissions through decreased energy use.

Organization Award—Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association of Toronto for its leadership in promoting pollution prevention. Motivated by the promotional efforts of the CVMA and its partners Ford Canada, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler, individual automotive manufacturing facilities have reduced or eliminated over 350,000 tonnes of air and water pollutants such as metals, hazardous waste and smog-forming compounds since 1992.  

Innovations Award—Irving Oil Refinery of Saint John, New Brunswick. As the first oil refinery to produce low sulphur gasoline for use by consumers, Irving Oil leads its industry by providing this product two years ahead of legislative requirements. Irving’s success has also been acknowledged by Canada’s leading auto-makers. Low sulphur gasoline significantly reduces air pollutants, with no cost increase for consumers, and can be used in both low emissions cars and conventional vehicles.

 The award program was established in 1997 to support CCME’s emphasis on preventing pollution at the source, rather than cleaning up or treating it later. Desiring to expand the program, the council announced it will pursue a new partnership comprised of industry, government, environmental and academic representation to provide direction on the awards program and pollution prevention initiatives for CCME.

 This year’s awards will be presented on June 7 at the Canadian Pollution Prevention Roundtable in St. John’s, Newfoundland. In addition to the award itself, winners will be presented a specially-designed logo that they may use, signifying their status as a CCME Pollution Prevention award winner. 

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 For further information:

 Nancy Gehlen
CCME Secretariat
Phone: 204-948-2281
E-mail:  ngehlen@ccme.ca  

                                                                                                                                           

Irving Pulp & Paper            Mary Keith            406-635-6666	Conoco            Barb Payer            403-260-2400	Irving Oil            Daniel Goodwin            506-633-3000
Hydro One Remote Communities            Terry Young            807-474-2800		Dow Chemical            Nancy Fullerton            780-998-8937
Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association            Yasmin Tarmohamed            416-364-9333