Metsä Tissue, part of Metsä Group, Finland, has been nominated for the international Energy Efficiency Award by DENA, the German Energy Agency, for its comprehensive work on improving energy efficiency and decreasing emissions in its production. The nomination is based on Metsä Tissue’s project to establish an innovative heat distributing net at Stotzheim mill, Germany, to reduce energy consumption and decrease direct specific greenhouse gas emission at the mill, which produces colored and printed napkins. The project, implemented in 2011–2012, reduces heat consumption by more than 11% and direct greenhouse gas emissions by 1,280 metric tons per year.

 

 

"With the amount of heat we have now saved, more than 330 single-family houses can be heated for a year," said Gero Kronen, VP production, Metsä Tissue’s Stotzheim mill.

 

Metsä Group’s targets are to reduce fossil fuel-based carbon dioxide emissions by 30% per produced metric ton and improve energy efficiency by 10% by 2020 from the 2009 level.

 

"Metsä Tissue is intensively investing in improving energy efficiency at all of its 10 mills. Since 2006, we have run four large-scale energy efficiency programs and gained improvements of more than 10%. We will continue our work to improve our performance and mitigate climate change," said Christoph Zeiler, SVP, Tissue, West Europe.

Metsä Tissue is one of 12 nominees in the competition. The best three projects will be announced on November 11 in Berlin by DENA. DENA has been awarding industrial and commercial companies for outstanding energy efficiency improvement projects since 2007. This year, the award’s patronage is Sigmar Gabriel, the federal minister of economics and energy of Germany.