CIPEC Leadership Awards

The CIPEC Leadership Awards are presented every second year to Canadian industrial organizations that have made exceptional advances in energy efficiency.

Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Efficiency selects winners by evaluating nominated projects against a clear set of criteria in different categories. Eligibility criteria, nomination deadlines and contact information are announced during the call for nominations for the awards.

• Access a list of past award winners
• Read about the successes of past award winners in the Heads Up CIPEC newsletter and the CIPEC Annual Report.

2018 award winners

• Energy Management National Award
• Corporate Stewardship Award
• Process and Technology Improvement Award
• Energy Performance Management Award
• Employee Awareness and Training Award
• Integrated Energy Efficiency Strategy Award
• Future Leaders Award

For more information, read the news release about the 2018 award winners.

Energy Management National Award

IBM Canada Ltd.

IBM has long been active in energy conservation with a formal energy management program dating back to the 1970s. Upon the publication of the ISO 50001 standard, the company was quick to develop a strategy to certify 26 of its locations to the standard, including several of their Canadian facilities. These sites achieved energy performance improvements of more than seven percent between 2013 and 2016, and energy savings of 2 million GJ while also avoiding over 187,000 Mt of CO₂ emissions. This resulted in cost savings of more than $32.5 million USD. IBM garnered these impressive results because of its energy management system and the involvement, innovation and mobilization of its employees. Along with a real-time monitoring system and improved preventative maintenance, IBM exceeded its own corporate targets and continues to be an industry leader.

St Marys Cement (Canada) Inc. – Bowmanville Plant

The company’s energy management committee, E=MC², has been at the heart of the many energy efficiency initiatives at St Marys’ Bowmanville Plant. The committee developed a Sustainable Energy Plan, and carried out successful initiatives such as the re-scheduling of plant operations to off-peak hours, participation in the Independent Electricity System Operator’s Demand Response Program, and an innovative employee engagement program. The company was the first North American industrial facility to earn Certification in Energy Excellence (Silver Award), which in addition to existing ISO systems, laid the groundwork for the plant’s ISO 50001 certification in 2011. The plant boasts annual energy performance improvements of nearly five percent with energy savings of 34,286 GJ and CO₂e reductions of 46,211 metric tonnes per year. This has resulted in cost savings of over $2 million USD per year.

Corporate Stewardship Award

3M Canada

3M Canada was one of the first organizations to certify for ISO 50001 and Superior Energy Performance within Canada. Seven of its Canadian manufacturing sites are now certified to the ISO 50001 standard. The company has long-standing corporate strategies to reduce energy consumption, which have strong support from the Corporate Operating Committee and the Chief Executive Officer. Between 2005 and 2015, Canadian and U.S. 3M facilities realized a 25% reduction in energy intensity by participating in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Better Plants. The three pillars of 3M Canada’s sustainability strategy – monitoring and targeting, technology and projects, and people – are central to its success in reducing energy intensity. 3M Canada uses the Plan-Do-Check-Act lean continuous improvement process to ensure that responsibility for energy initiatives is assigned. Initiatives include the optimization of maker oven control (saving nearly 84,000 m³ of natural gas and $30,000), chiller optimization (efficiency improvements of up to 0.4 kW/tonne) and employee energy awareness campaigns. 3M’s goals are to improve energy performance by 30% from the 2015 baseline and have 25% of its total electricity consumption supplied by renewable sources by 2025.

Copper Mountain Mine (BC) Ltd.

With the creation of a joint administration and energy manager position, Copper Mountain has been able to embed energy efficiency in its corporate strategy. The manager has a deep and multi-faceted understanding of the business case for energy management. A site-wide energy audit in 2015 highlighted potential improvement opportunities. Of these, a number were implemented, including the optimization of the secondary crushing circuit and the improvement of grinding efficiency with a change to high chrome media in the regrind mill in 2016, which resulted in savings of 2 GWh a year. An energy study recently completed identified that adding a Vertimill for tertiary grinding optimization will save an estimated 28 million kWh annually compared to the installation of a ball mill. Another project under review is to convert high horsepower, diesel-powered 220 tonne haul trucks to liquefied natural gas based on a 35% substitution rate. Moreover, the company’s energy policy and its successful energy improvements are also building on the growing energy management culture of employees. 

Process and Technology Improvement Award

CNH Industrial

CNH Industrial installed a Building Automation System (BAS) for centralized control of HVAC systems, which is expected to annually reduce electricity consumption by 6,500 GJ, natural gas consumption by 12,640 GJ and CO₂ emissions by 2,030 tonnes. Its HVAC systems were identified as a significant energy user within the facility’s ISO 50001 framework. The new BAS tracks HVAC equipment run time, occupied space temperature and real-time energy consumption via metering. This metering provides operating time and consumption data at the equipment level to improve energy awareness and help identify potential energy reduction projects. The CNH Industrial facility has also implemented many other energy efficiency projects, such as conversion of indoor and outdoor lighting to LED and variable frequency drives in the paint line exhaust, wash pumps and dust collectors.

FCA Canada Inc. – Windsor Assembly Plant

The chilled water system at the Windsor Assembly Plant was modified to operate in a demand-flow mode to improve overall system efficiency, thereby cutting annual energy costs by 3,865 MWh. The project achieved 113% of projected savings in the first quarter of a one-year monitoring and verification period. An engineering study indicated several energy saving opportunities in the plant’s chiller system, including resetting the supply temperature set point, retrofitting additional pumps with variable frequency drives, removing mechanical flow controls and switching to differential pressure control. The modifications were completed in a two-week period during July 2017. In addition, the retrofit incorporates a free cooling mode that allows the process to operate without mechanical cooling during the winter months. Constraints on the process did not leave much room for error during installation; therefore, precise planning and implementation were critical elements for a successful start-up.

Energy Performance Management Award

Canfor Pulp Ltd.

The Northwood Pulp Mill, the Prince George Pulp & Paper Mill and the Intercontinental Pulp Mill have realized important energy savings through a range of initiatives implemented between March 2016 and March 2018. One key project was the implementation of a novel control system approach – the first in Canada – to control liquor flow to the mills’ digesters, which is estimated to save 3.4 GW of electricity per year. An update to the sequencing program of the air compressor resulted in an annual electricity saving of 583 MW, and an upgrade to the hog distribution fan on the Northwood power boiler yielded 65,000 GJ per year in natural gas savings. Lighting and pump upgrades and air leak repairs have resulted in around 4,000 MWh per year in electricity savings. In addition, all sites have formalized their energy goals, launched a corporate energy intranet site, and created a cross-departmental energy team. Northwood has also implemented a comprehensive Energy Management Information System.

Teck Highland Valley Copper

Highland Valley Copper’s energy manager realized that traditional broad employee engagement campaigns at the company often yielded a high volume of ideas but smaller results. By shifting the engagement focus to key operational groups, much more significant energy reductions were possible. Energy management was key in improving profitability and reaching energy targets when it supported core business. This targeted approach led to 15 energy projects, including the optimization of the ball mills for grind density instead of only considering maximum power. This resulted in 8.5 GWh in electricity savings, or about $540,000 annually. A better waste dump location has reduced haulage hours, saving 642,600 liters of diesel annually at an estimated cost of $640,000 and diversion of 18 Kt of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 10 years.

Employee Awareness and Training Award

New Gold Inc. – New Afton Mine

In March 2014, the company’s New Afton site became the first mine in North America to be ISO 50001 certified. Since that time, the mine has realized energy performance improvement measures, saving 35 GWh annually. New Gold attributes these impressive results, in large part, to increased employee engagement. It is New Afton’s vision for sustainable energy management that drives employee awareness and training. The energy team reviews energy improvement ideas from employee suggestions and energy efficiency studies, and capital is allocated for feasible projects. To promote employee and contractor energy efficiency awareness, New Afton provides an energy orientation and focused training for operators of energy intensive processes. The company has also launched campaigns, including one that encourages energy efficiency at home and another that aims to reduce mobile equipment idling.

Tahoe Canada

Only a year old, the company’s ‘Digging Energy’ incentive program is already building a strong energy management culture at all levels of the company. The program offers monthly prizes and annual grand prizes for suggestions from Tahoe’s workforce to meet its energy conservation target of a 2,000 eMWh annual reduction in energy consumption. Energy working groups were created to implement suggestions and provide technical expertise. In addition, an energy dashboard was designed to track energy metrics, which makes energy consumption and improvement visible to employees. Training packages for the workforce have further heightened energy conservation awareness. Since the launch of the energy incentive program in April 2017, over 120 suggestions have been received and are being considered. One implemented suggestion—grate unplugging—has saved around 6,900 MWh or over $1.5 M in electricity costs.

Integrated Energy Efficiency Strategy Award

Cascades Inc.

Cascades’ innovative energy team, CS+, is dedicated to reducing the company’s energy costs and improving the energy efficiency of each facility. Cascades uses the 3R approach in all of its plants – reduce at the source, recover waste energy and replace with less energy consuming technologies, with reduction at the source as the most important. Since 2004, the company has been investing in its Energy Investment Fund, which exists solely to promote energy efficiency projects. In 2017, 31 projects were funded, saving the company over 200,000 GJ in energy and close to $2 million. Projects that have enhanced the synergy between the different business units of the company include the implementation of an Energy Management System and progressive LED lighting retrofits in all plants. Cascades is also piloting solar energy and solar walls in some plants. Its stringent corporate energy policy requires an average 1.4% decrease in energy costs between now and 2020.

Creemore Springs Brewery Limited

Creemore’s integrated approach to energy and resource conservation has yielded impressive results. In the first year, the company achieved 12.1%, 9.5% and 9.2% reductions in natural gas, water and electricity consumption, respectively. These results are thanks to Creemore’s cross-departmental Green Team, whose goal it is to reduce the brewery’s environmental footprint. Since its formation in April 2016, the team has implemented numerous projects in the areas of employee involvement, conservation and technological improvements. Water consumption was significantly minimized by optimizing bottle and can rinsing, as well as reducing the rinsing of the brew house vessels. Other initiatives included beer recipe optimization, beer filtration improvements, steam system insulation, automated boiler blowdown and LED lighting retrofits. Suggestions from employees, many that were easy to implement, also helped drive improvements.

Future Leaders Award

Michael A. Abel

Michael Abel, an engineering graduate from the University of Victoria and Gibraltar Mines’ energy coordinator since 2017, focuses his time on using energy monitoring and targeting (EM & T) strategies to find opportunities to realize process and technical improvements. He does this by creating accurate models from metering data with the goal of developing energy use baselines, which will help diagnose anomalies or spikes. Michael is also able to identify potential projects with his approach including an opportunity with the mine’s tailings pumps, which has the potential to yield significant savings. He foresees increased operator awareness of energy issues as he continues to diagnose anomalies in energy use and points out the energy savings that can be achieved from greater process or technology efficiencies. Michael’s work with the mine’s EM & T system has the potential to lead to solutions in the mining sector in general.

Naz Orang

A Ph.D. candidate from the University of Toronto, Naz Orang spent the past few years investigating and mitigating the impact of fuel quality variation for biomass boilers that produce steam for pulp and paper mills. Another goal was to optimize biomass boiler operation in order to enable self-sustained combustion of biomass. Naz was able to develop a Partial Least Squares (PLS) model that allows for the prediction of the onset of a process upset that leads to a decrease in thermal performance as well as the contributing factors in this process. With this information, operators can mitigate the situation and increase thermal performance back to optimal values. The result is minimal co-combustion of fossil fuels and a potential savings of $700,000 annually in fossil fuel costs. The model was also successfully tested on different types of boilers, fixed and fluidized beds, as well as different mixtures of biomass feedstock.