Press Release

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions:
FOUR QUEBEC ORGANIZATIONS WIN ECOGESTE AWARDS

Quebec City, November 11, 2004 - On the evening of November 10, four Quebec organization received 2004 EcoGESte awards for controlling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The 15^th annual Soirée Energia awards ceremony was held at the Hilton Bonaventure in Montreal.

The EcoGESte awards were created in 2001 to recognize the industries, small and medium-sized companies and private or public organizations registered in the EcoGESte program of the Ministry of the Environment who distinguished themselves in the control and reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions.

The EcoGESte program was set up in 1996 to record the voluntary efforts made by Quebec organizations to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions. The Soirée Energia, organized by the Association québécoise pour la maîtrise de l'énergie (AQME), is dedicated to celebrating excellence in energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions.

The winners

The EcoGESte award in the Major Corporation category was won by the Alcoa Deschambault smelter, which has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions (GGEs) by 18% since 1993, at the same time increasing production by 21%. Several measures contributed to this performance. The most significant one involved controling the anode effects that cause perfluorocarbon (PFC) emissions.

In the Small and Medium-sized Business category, the award went to Marsulex Montréal inc. in recognition of the company’s specialized expertise in recovering sulfur from crude oil. Since 1990, the company has reduced its annual GGEs by 35% and improved its energy efficiency by 41%. It did so by installing new burners on its steam boilers and eliminating the reheating of the output gases from the sulfur dioxide purifier.

The third EcoGESte award, in the Building Management category, went to Shawinigan College, which, by implementing a range of energy efficiency measures since 1990, has reduced its total GGE by 55% s and the amount of energy consumed per square metre by 41%.

The EcoGESte award for the Performance of the Year highlights recent initiatives. The winner in this category was Bowater Forest Products of Canada Inc., for the performance of its Gatineau plant which in 2003 optimized the operation of its biomass boiler and implemented stricter quality controls on its biomass fuel supply. The company thus managed to reduce its total GGEs by 29% and the quantity of emissions per tonne of newspaper produced by 31% compared to 2002.

Thomas J. Mulcair, Minister of the Environment, was very pleased with the performance of the winners, saying "I congratulate the finalists and the winners on the excellent the results they have achieved. I hope that the efforts made by these organizations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and the innovations that have led them to those achievements will inspire other organizations to make technological and energy efficient choices that will help us combat climate change and improve air quality."

The jury

The winners of the 2004 EcoGESte awards were selected by an independent jury. This year the members of the jury were Gaétan Lefebvre, president of the Order of Engineers of Quebec, Maxime Leclerc, an engineer with F.F. Soucy inc. (which in 2003 won in the Major Corporation category), and François Meloche, an environmental issues analyst with Groupe Investissement responsable. The jury selected the four winners from 12 finalists.

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