Northland's Golden Bay Cement has been hailed for its use of bioenergy to reduce CO2 emissions, winning the renewable energy category in the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority Awards.
The Portland-based company has cut CO2 emissions by a huge 58,000 tonnes a year and is saving $3 million every year in energy costs, as a result of substituting nearly a third of the coal burned for wood fuel.
This also includes wood sourced from demolition and construction waste that would otherwise be landfilled.
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 the supreme award winner, Air New Zealand, which is avoiding 142,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.