Norbord highlighted its investment in environmental protection and stressed the risk of its raw material being diverted to bio-energy production to visiting Scottish minister Richard Lochead.
Mr Lochead, cabinet secretary for rural affairs and the environment, was given a fact finding tour of the company’s Inverness site, where it drew his attention to its latest £2.5m investment in environmental systems. These include Norbord’s own biomass plant and take its environmental spend since 2000 to £31m.
Norbord Inverness general manager Cameron Lewis said the company also raised key issues with Mr Lochead.
“In particular the subsidy given to the biomass energy industry which is diverting the limited available biomass from industries where it’s already successfully in use, for example the members of the Wood Panel Industries Federation who already generate 2.4TWh a year from biomass.”
Mr Lochead congratulated Norbord on the steps its taken to reduce carbon emissions.
