By KELLY LOUISEIZE
Northern Ontario Business
Environmental acuity in the industrial sector is becoming increasingly prevalent.
While government influence and public persuasion often play a role in the push for environmental cleanup, industry leaders are making the investment simply as an act of good corporate citizenship.
Dynea Canada Ltd. in North Bay is following the lead on corporate citizenship by investing $1.3 million to decrease formaldehyde emissions at its plant. The purchase and installation of two catalytic converters at its plant has been a corporate decision made without influence of government or the public, says Lorne McDonald, plant manager in North Bay.
"This is not a productivity improvement; there is no revenue from these things," says McDonald. "We were not mandated to do this."
Dynea is one of the world's leading providers of adhesive products used in making furniture, wood and non-wood items.
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In a move to display greater corporate responsibility, Dynea Canada has invested $1.3 million to reduce emissions at its North Bay plant, says Lorne McDonald, plant manager in North Bay. |
Part of their goal is to be environmentally friendly and safe to the employees and the community out of which they operate. Continual improvements such as this will exceed the environmental compliance laws, and that will "put the plant over the top, which is a nice place to be," McDonald remarks.
Garry McClean, vice-president of northeastern North American operations for Dynea Canada Ltd., says the company participated in a government project called Selected Targets for Air Compliance (STAC). The purpose was for companies to voluntarily retest stack emissions and then report back to the government with the findings.
There is no law that requires companies to go back and retest the facilities after having been in operation, McClean says. However, Dynea wanted to investigate its emissions because "it make good corporate sense."
As a result, tests "indicated we potentially might have a problem with some of our emissions," McClean adds. "I guess you could say we were borderline, but still within provincial requirements."
Ministry of Environment officials came to the plant site and did testing, only to find the company was not exceeding provincial requirements, but senior officials had already decided to embark on a project to reduce the formaldehyde emissions by 99.5 per cent.
This project did not stem from residential complaints. Approximately five years ago there was a community group which looked at concerns related to the plant, however it fell by the wayside, McClean says, since there were no outstanding issues.
Another converter is being considered for their plant in Thunder Bay. It would be exactly the same as the one currently being developed at the North Bay facility. Dynea already has catalytic converters in place at their St. Terese, Quebec and Toledo, Ohio plants.
It took two and a half years to bring the emission reduction project to fruition. Once the converters begin operation, the ministry will retest to ensure levels are no longer borderline, but May O'Brien, corporate health and safety co-ordinator with Dynea, is expecting the results to come in well below the limit of 65 micro grams per cubic metre. This limit is the standard for formaldehyde emissions. It will be too premature to say how effective it will be since tests will be conducted once the machinery is in full production.
There seems to be a ground swell of companies who are interested in making reductions part of their mandate, McClean says.
However, Steve Klose, manager of certificate of approval review in the environmental assessment and approval branch with the Ministry of Environment, says the government does not keep records of companies who make it their mandate to further reduce emissions below industry levels.
