Canada: Politicians and community leaders were on hand yesterday to celebrate the fact that St Marys Cement's Bowmanville Plant has received North America's first International Organisation for Standardisation's (ISO) ISO 50001 certification.

Erik Madsen, CEO of St Marys Cement Inc. accepted the certificate at a ceremony at the plant. The award presentation was made by Michael Delisle, CEO of International Certification Services Inc. (ICS). Although the ceremony was official recognition of the plant had achieved certification the company was officially registered as the first North American recipient of ISO 50001 on 15 November 2011.

Upon receiving the Certificate, Madsen observed, "St Marys identified the benefits and embraced the certification process early. The ISO 50001 programme and cement plants are a logical fit. Our Bowmanville plant has a rated capacity of over 1.8Mt/yr of product, operates 24/7 and consumes significant amounts of energy. Managing these energy costs is a no brainer. it is good for the environment and our bottom line."

Fabio Garcia, Operations Manager at the Bowmanville Plant, told ceremony attendees, "Receiving this prestigious certification was not something that happened overnight. The origins of this certification can be traced back to 2005 when we were given the green light by senior management to move forward with an integrated strategy to reduce the plant's energy consumption.  This quickly became an initiative supported and made possible by all of our employees."

CEO Madsen concluded, "The  commitment to energy conservation, and the continual desire to improve processes by the entire staff at our Bowmanville plant,  is the reason that this is the first North American site to receive ISO 50001 certification. The energy conservation elements of ISO 50001 certification means we are on track for over US$1m in savings in 2012 alone.  I want to thank each and every one of our employees, who helped to make this possible."