NewPage Receives Environmental Stewardship Award for Lighting Project at Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, Mill

MIAMISBURG, Ohio, Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ — NewPage Corporation today announced that its Wisconsin Rapids Converting Facility has been honored with an Environmental Stewardship Award from Orion Energy Systems. After an extensive review of the facility’s energy consumption in the second half of 2006, managers began working with Orion to find innovative and cost-effective ways to reduce energy waste and lessen the impact on the environment. With the help of local contractor, VanErt Electric, a new high-efficiency, high intensity fluorescent (HIF) system was installed, replacing the older fixtures in the facility.

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“NewPage is honored to receive this Environmental Stewardship award. The simple step of changing lighting aligns perfectly with our core value of doing what’s right for our employees and the environment. It saves energy, makes the work environment brighter and is more cost effective. It’s a win-win-win situation,” said Bernie Berger, manager of the NewPage Wisconsin Rapids Converting Facility.

By making this change, the facility dramatically displaced its energy usage by 2,257,778 kilowatt-hours per year. Besides the huge cost savings to be realized by the facility, the Environmental Impact Equivalent over the duration of the lighting fixtures’ lifetime, as estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency, is comparable to planting 414 acres of trees, removing 56,315 tons of airborne pollutants, or saving 3,736,171 gallons of gasoline.

Orion presents its awards annually to companies that achieve significant environmental benefits through use of their products and systems. Orion Energy Systems has deployed its energy management systems in 3,655 facilities across North America. Since 2001, its technology has displaced more than 334 megawatts and reduced indirect carbon dioxide emissions by 4.4 million tons, saving its customers more than $351 million.

“By presenting NewPage Corporation with our Environmental Stewardship Award, Orion wants to highlight the fact that this energy efficient lighting project was good for everyone — good for the bottom line at NewPage, good for their employees, good for their customers and good for the environment that we all share,” said Neal Verfueth, CEO of Orion Energy Systems. “That’s the way more things should go.”

To learn more about NewPage Corporation, visit www.NewPageCorp.com.

About NewPage Corporation

Headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, NewPage Corporation is the largest coated paper manufacturer in North America, based on production capacity, with $4.7 billion in pro forma net sales for the year ended December 31, 2007. The company’s product portfolio is the broadest in North America and includes coated freesheet, coated groundwood, supercalendered, newsprint and specialty papers. These papers are used for corporate collateral, commercial printing, magazines, catalogs, books, coupons, inserts, newspapers, packaging applications and direct mail advertising.

NewPage owns paper mills in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nova Scotia, and Wisconsin. These mills currently have a total annual production capacity of approximately 5.5 million tons of paper, including approximately 4.3 million tons of coated paper, approximately 920,000 tons of uncoated paper and approximately 300,000 tons of specialty paper, as well as approximately 3.2 million tons of pulp.

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Source: NewPage Corporation