Success at the ECCA Energy Awards for Nelson Pine Industries

Success at the ECCA Energy Awards for Nelson Pine Industries

Nelson Pine Industries Limited was ‘Highly Commended’ twice over at this year’s EECA Awards, at a ceremony at the Langham Hotel in Auckland on Wednesday 23 May.

Air New Zealand was named the Supreme Winner, with NPIL winning a Highly Commended in the EcoInsulation Large Business Award, won by ASB; and another Highly Commended in the Contact Energy - Energy Management Award, won by the New Zealand Post Group.

The awards citation stated that NPIL’s energy saving programme had outstripped the targets set in improving energy use across the operation.

“It was an ambitious project that sought to win to hearts and minds – on the shopfloor and in management – which was crucial, as downtime is expensive and product quality can suffer easily.

For a capital outlay of $750,000 the company is now saving $1.3 million a year in energy costs, well surpassing its targets.”

The judges said it was a very well executed project.

“This demonstrated an understanding of culture, and the courage to design and implement energy efficiency while managing risks to product quality.”

NPIL won another Highly Commended in the Contact Energy - Energy Management Award, with the citation noting the energy savings had also lowered maintenance costs and emissions, and had benefitted the whole region by reducing load on the network.

The judges for this award said that NPIL had achieved impressive energy savings in a short space of time with very quick payback, which ‘had NZ Inc benefits, taking pressure off the fragile supply situation at top of the south’

NPIL CEO Chris Turner said it was great for a Nelson company to be represented with industry big players such as Air New Zealand and NZ Post.

“I’d like to commend Process Engineer James Cameron who has championed this project from the beginning, though it has really been a team effort, with great buy-in from staff at all levels,” he said. “I’d also like to thank EECA for the support we have had from them in achieving this result.”

Nelson Pine engineers are now offering support and advice to their sister plant at Wangaratta to help implement similar energy efficiency measures there.

The awards are run annually by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, which works to implement government strategies for energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy in both the private and public sectors.

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