We sent a free set of LED Christmas lights to the first 100 participants and the remaining participants who submitted their lights to us before January 31, 2008 will receive a coupon.   For those of you who participated, thank you for helping us make the program a success and you can expect your coupon to arrive via email or regular mail within the next month.

We are going to expand the program next year and substantially increase the number of sets we give away.  We are also looking for people or organizations who may be interested in participating in next years program.  We will be looking for groups willing to set up collection sites as well as sponsors who may be interested in helping us develop a Christmas light exchange program.   Please contact us if you or anyone you know may be interested.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this issue while evaluating our companies’ recycling program and environmental policy. For the most part our programs have worked well and we’ve had a lot of participation within our organization and from our customers. I think a big part of the effort is just getting people in the mindset of looking for ways to conserve resources and produce less waste. However, I think that once an individual or organization has obtained this awareness it is important to shift focus and attention to refining the underlying processes and programs. For example, we are looking at implementing central collection points for our recycling program so the lights do not have to be mailed to us.

I use this example only because it is one that is familiar to me and to illustrate the point that we need to be cautious in evaluating the net impact of our efforts. This is not to say that we should over analysis this matter and waste untold resources trying to determine which option is more green. In some respects I think there is a substantial and immeasurable benefit to fostering a mindset in consumers towards environmental awareness–even if the net benefit is questionable.

We all need to develop an awareness of the impact our lives have on our environment and the cost of gaining this awareness may mean that some of our efforts fall short of a net environmental gain. However, it is important that we do not loose site of the ultimate objective during the development of this new awareness.