Gaining further recognition after having won the Excellence in Concrete for the Community at the 2011 CCANZ Concrete3 Sustainability Awards, Golden Bay Cement has again been hailed as an industry leader for its use of bio-energy to reduce CO2 emissions, winning the Renewable Energy category in the 2012 EECA Awards in the process.
The company has cut CO2 emissions by a huge 58,000 tonnes per year and is saving $3m every year in energy costs, as a result of substituting nearly a third of the coal burned in its kiln for wood fuel, sourced from demolition and construction waste.
The project makes Golden Bay Cement new Zealand’s largest known user of renewable wood energy outside the wood processing sector. Its CO2 savings are the highest of any award finalist except Supreme Award winner Air new Zealand, which is avoiding 142,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
EECA Chief Executive mike Underhill said Golden Bay Cement was setting the bar for other energy-intensive industries.
“It’s inspiring to see a big industrial user like Golden Bay Cement take a leap of faith and start switching to renewable bio-energy, particularly sourced from wood waste. It demonstrates very clearly that large process heat users don’t necessarily need to rely on fossil fuels. We hope this will be an example for other energy intensive industries like dairy. Industrial heat accounts for more than 30% of our national energy use - and along with transport, it has the most scope for improvement in terms of efficiency and increasing use of renewable energy.”
The project has enabled Golden Bay Cement to meet the strict Environmental Choice criteria. It’s also helping Northland industry, generating jobs and revenue for local wood suppliers.