Orora Limited has been recognised by the Energy Efficiency Council (ECC) and Energy Users Association of Australia (EUAA) as Australia’s Leading Energy User 2014.

The honour, conferred during the Council’s annual conference last week, celebrates excellence in energy management.
The National Energy Efficiency Industry Awards are Australia's highest profile awards for energy efficiency, and recognise excellence in performance, leadership and innovation in the sector. The awards are delivered by Australia's peak body for energy efficiency, the Energy Efficiency Council.

The award recognises Orora’s leadership and investment in energy saving initiatives across its Australasian business, as well as the actual energy savings and other benefits achieved by reason of those initiatives. Orora stood out among a notable field of contenders to secure the award.

Speaking on behalf of the judging panel, Luke Menzel, Acting CEO of the Energy Efficiency Council, said “Orora demonstrated a strong, organisational wide program of interventions which has seen them make very substantive improvements in their energy efficiency over the last several years. Five year targets were met in three years, and judges were impressed that the organisation has already moved to a new set of more stringent targets. I extend warm congratulations to the Orora team for such a successful project.”

Highlights of Orora’s entry include:

• achievement of five year EnviroAction targets two years ahead of schedule and setting new challenging targets
• a 36.5% reduction in CO2 emissions from lighting through the introduction of “smart lights” across the business and
• a 17.87% reduction in emissions from compressed air through the introduction of compressed air management stations.

The way in which Orora championed and promoted these initiatives across the business was also of note.

“A sustainable operating platform is of critical importance to us at Orora” said Nigel Garrard, Orora’s Managing Director and CEO.

“A key element of this is our commitment to continuous improvement in managing the impacts we have on the communities and environment within which we operate, while creating value for our customers and shareholders. Whilst the benefits of these initiatives are, on one level, reward enough, it is very satisfying for all at Orora for our efforts to be singled out, from amongst our peers, and recognised in this way by the peak industry body.”