GORHAM – Gov. Paul LePage will join Maine Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Patricia Aho at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 19, in Gorham to announce the winners of the first state-sponsored environmental excellence awards given out in nearly a decade.

According to a news release, the 2012 Governor’s Awards for Environmental Excellence will be presented by LePage and Aho in a ceremony at Jøtul North America’s headquarters, 55 Hutcherson Drive, to businesses in four workforce size categories, as well as a nonprofit collaborative and a public entity that have gone beyond regulatory requirements to creatively initiate innovation and environmentally sustainable practices.

Winners come from Cumberland, Lincoln, Oxford, Waldo, Washington and York counties.

LePage and Aho will also each speak.

Following the formal awards presentation, Bret Watson, president of Jøtul North America, will lead a tour of that company’s manufacturing production line and research and development lab. The company makes clean-burning wood and gas stoves and inserts.

Jøtul North America employs approximately 90 Mainers in their 130,000 square-foot facility, and has plans to grow.

The news release said a similar environmental excellence awards program was discontinued by the department in 2005, but that Aho decided to relaunch it to recognize environmental leaders.