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Industrial Innovation: Small Changes, Big Impacts

Switching off the lights and turning down the thermostat. These are the first steps many of us take when we want to save energy. But how would you approach energy conservation if you ran an oil refinery or a paper mill? Surprisingly, it’s really not very complicated.

For many Canadian businesses, cutting energy costs is about making small changes. But figuring out where to make these changes is often the hardest step. That’s where the Canadian Industry Program for Energy Conservation (CIPEC) comes in. 

CIPEC is a voluntary partnership between the Government of Canada and industry, which is administered by the Office of Energy Efficiency of Natural Resources Canada. When companies join CIPEC, they gain access to training, incentives, technical guides and information that help them manage their energy use more efficiently. It’s a partnership that works.

In 2005, four out of five industrial companies to win Canada’s Energy Efficiency Awards had help from CIPEC.  

Doug Dittburner, Chief Engineer and Energy Team Leader with Unilever Canada’s Rexdale plant, credits CIPEC for helping his company win an award.

“Unilever’s involvement with CIPEC started off with training provided at the Dollars to $ense workshops,” he says. “Since then, the company has taken advantage of CIPEC’s range of products and services. With CIPEC’s help, our plant is saving $4.1 million a year in energy costs.”

The Dollars to $ense workshops offer energy-saving tips through practical tools such as easy-to-use analysis software.

With a long-term trend of rising prices for fuel and electricity, CIPEC sees a growing demand for its programs and services. It now boasts a membership of 52 trade associations, totalling more than 5,000 companies. To date, companies under the CIPEC umbrella constitute approximately 98 percent of industrial energy demand in Canada. 

For more information, please contact:

Natural Resources Canada
Office of Energy Efficiency
580 Booth Street, 18th Floor
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0E4

Tel.: (613) 995-6839
Fax: (613) 992-3161
E-mail: cipec.peeic@nrcan.gc.ca
CIPEC Web site: www.cipec.gc.ca

CIPEC Fast Facts

• Canadian industry spent about $3.1 billion less for energy in 2004 thanks to effective energy management. This is equivalent to heating 39 percent of Canadian homes for a year.
• Between 1990 and 2004, industry improved its energy efficiency by 9.1 percent. Without these improvements, annual greenhouse gas emissions would have been 29.5 megatonnes higher in 2004.
• CIPEC member companies in the mining, manufacturing and construction industries limited their increase in energy consumption to 9.3 percent between 1990 and 2004, while the economy grew at 44.5 percent.