Catalyst Paper, Doubletree Win Awards For Green Efforts

October 2, 2007

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Nonprofit Metafore announced the winners of the Metafore Innovation Awards at the Green Power Corporate Climate Response Conference. The award theme was products and services “that reduce or offset climate change through new methods and processes.”

The winner in the products category was Catalyst Paper Corporation for Catalyst Cooled, a carbon-neutral paper that premiered in June 2007 as part of a pilot project with Rolling Stone Magazine. Catalyst achieves carbon neutrality by switching to renewable, carbon-neutral fuels, reducing energy consumption and improving equipment efficiency, according to Metafore. Catalyst then works with partners to offset its remaining emissions to zero through reforestation projects. The paper includes a high percentage of precipitated calcium carbonate filler, which sequesters carbon in the paper itself.

The winner in the services category was Doubletree Hotel and Executive Meeting Center in Portland, for a sustainability program that includes carbon reduction and reduced resource use. Doubletree quantifies its carbon footprint and offers carbon offsetting for groups. Doubletree’s property-specific Carbon Calculator is the only fully customized Carbon Calculator uniquely engineered for a specific hotel, according to Metafore. Doubletree has diverted kitchen waste into compost at an average rate of 14 tons per month, decreased its total energy consumption by 32 percent, subsidized mass transit cost for employees, implemented a comprehensive Environmental Purchasing Policy, and purchases 65 percent of its food products from within a 500-mile region.

The finalists were Grays Harbor Paper, International Paper Company, The Center for Research, Conservation and Management of Natural Areas, and Myllykoski North America.

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