Building materials group CalPortland has been awarded the 2020 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence award for both its "continued leadership and superior contributions" and its determination to "protect the environment through superior energy efficiency."
The ENERGY STAR awards scheme is backed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.
According to CalPortland President and CEO Allen Hamblen, his company "is proud to receive the 2020 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award (because) finding new and innovative solutions to create energy efficiencies has become an integral part of our company culture. We are honored to celebrate our employees’ ongoing efforts by achieving this tremendous award for the 16th consecutive year.
"CalPortland remains committed to reducing emissions and reducing our company’s environmental footprint by contributing to the circular economy.”
“I salute the 2020 ENERGY STAR award winners,” said Anne Idsal, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation.
“These leaders demonstrate how energy efficiency drives economic competitiveness in tandem with environmental protection.”
CalPortland is a leading building materials company producing cement and construction material products on the west coast of the United States. Founded in 1891, CalPortland has operations in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Arizona as well as in British Columbia and Alberta.
The group says: " CalPortland has been an ENERGY STAR PARTNER since 1996 and remains dedicated to demonstrating and promoting energy efficiency within the company and to other companies in the construction materials industry. The 2020 national award is the sixteenth consecutive ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award for CalPortland. A feat that has never been matched by any other industrial company.
"Since 2003, CalPortland’s energy management efforts have reduced the company’s overall energy intensity by 16.5%, avoiding $135 million in unnecessary energy costs. Key 2019 accomplishments include:
• Reducing the carbon footprint and embodied energy of its cement products by developing for the market-blended cements;
• Advancing energy efficiency and emission reductions through extensive upgrades to the company’s mobile fleet, rail operations, and cement plants, amounting to significant expenditures in capital efficiency projects;
• Working with the leadership of the national cement, concrete, and asphalt trade associations to increase industry involvement in energy management;
• Incorporating strategic elements in the corporate energy program by using ENERGY STAR’s cement plant certification, Challenge for Industry, and Treasure Hunt campaign;
• Focusing on community engagement and in-person education by reaching more than 136,000 individuals on good energy management best practices;
• Incorporating energy management and ENERGY STAR into the company’s corporate-wide professional development training program through videos, an intranet site, new employee orientation, and regular employee engagements.
ENERGY STAR says it "is a U.S. government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well informed decisions.
"Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations - including more than 40% of the Fortune 500 rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions.
"Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners (have) helped save American families and businesses nearly 4 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity with associated reductions of over 3 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases. In 2017 alone, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped Americans save $30 billion in energy costs."
