Resource Consumption

Plant and Office Power Use
The production plant is computer controlled for heat and air-cooling to ensure optimal energy efficiency. Hemlock is currently performing a retrofit to both office and plant lighting in partnership with BC Hydro’s PowerSmart program, which is expected to reduce electricity consumption for lighting by 35%.

A 2005 investment in Firestone’s state-of-the-art heat reflective and insulating Ultraply roof covering has also allowed an end to heating the pressroom in winter and drastic reductions of plant cooling requirements in summer while improving climate control and the comfort of our production crews.

Transportation
In 2006, Hemlock dedicated the local delivery truck that we own to run on B20 biodiesel based on Canadian-grown Canola oil. This reduces harmful sulfur and particulate emissions as well as fossil carbon emissions, while enhancing our engine’s performance. Hemlock also offers discounted transit passes to employees and promotes carpooling, and cycling to work with an extensive information centre at the plant entrance. Where further business travel and power sourcing is concerned, Hemlock is evaluating offset programs.

Hemlock is currently developing a comprehensive Carbon emissions management plan.

Paper
Hemlock minimizes the paper trim waste of the sheetfed litho process with the Offcuts for Charity program that donates extra space on sheets to nonprofit organizations. The recent addition of rolled paper on our larger press allows custom sheet sizing, further minimizing trim waste. Make-ready waste paper is overprinted with waste ink and then reused as box liners. 100% of paper trimmingsare always recycled, and small runs are recommended to print on the extremely resource-efficient HP Indigo 5000 digital press wehre it’s possible to eliminate a job’s make-ready paper and process water wastes entirely.