Awards and Certifications From July 19
Biggs Gilmore Named an Ad Age Agency of the Year: Kalamazoo-based Biggs Gilmore has been named by Ad Age as 2010 Small Agency of the Year among agencies with 76 to 150 employees. The award was announced at a ceremony recognizing top U.S. small ad agencies July 14 in New Orleans. Ad Age Small Agency Award applicants are judged by Ad Age staff and advertising industry leaders on several criteria, including agency business performance, the impact of their work on marketers' businesses, and their thought leadership and innovation. In presenting the award, Ad Age cited Biggs Gilmore's ability to make "old-school brands like Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies and Cottonelle hot topics in the digital and social-media realms." Biggs Gilmore is a digital agency with 100 employees and offices in Kalamazoo and Chicago. The agency creates and executes digital marketing for leading consumer brand companies including Kellogg, Kimberly-Clark and Heinz. Complete coverage of the Small Agency Awards will be featured in the July 26 edition of Ad Age. More at www.biggs-gilmore.com.
EPA Lists Wixom Firm's Clean Diesel Tech: Thornhill, Ontario-based Engine Control Systems Ltd., a subsidiary of Catalytic Solutions Inc. company (AIM: CTS and CTSU) and Wixom-based NxtGen Emission Controls Inc. announced Monday that the United States Environmental Protection Agency has placed the Actifilter SG, a diesel particulate filter emissions reduction system that combines NxtGen's patented syngas generator and Catalytic Solutions' catalyst technology, on the National Clean Diesel's Emerging Technology List. Actifilter SG is an actively regenerating DPF system designed to reduce particulate matter for exhaust gas recirculation and non-EGR equipped four-stroke highway diesel engines manufactured from 1994 through 2006. Unlike other active DPF's which employ fuel burners or diesel fuel injection, the Actifilter SG incorporates a syngas generator. The syngas generator delivers a stream of syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide), which readily oxidizes over an oxidation catalyst to create the heat necessary to reliably keep the DPF clean and working efficiently. The syngas generator performs seamlessly without operator intervention or vehicle use interruptions. The Actifilter SG system is designed for intra-city medium duty trucks and buses where the passive regeneration of a DPF is impeded by low exhaust temperatures caused by low vehicle speeds and frequent stops. The system is projected to reduce PM emissions by 90 percent and hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions by 80 percent. The primary goal of the Emerging Technologies program is to support early deployment of new technologies that will reduce diesel emissions from existing fleets. Under this competitive grant program, the EPA provides funding assistance to eligible entities for the deployment of diesel emission reduction technologies, which are in the process of being verified by the EPA. The program also provides an opportunity for manufacturers to obtain feedback from fleet partners on their technology while it is in-use as a precursor to EPA verification. Actifilter SG fleet trials on urban buses and delivery trucks have currently accumulated more than 5,000 hours of combined service already which have included demonstration vehicles operating successfully through a Canadian winter. Funds for these fleet trials and a portion of the Actifilter SG development were provided by Cenovus Energy's Environmental Opportunity Fund and Sustainable Development Technology Canada. More at www.epa.gov/cleandiesel/prgemerglist.htm.
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