Green Options

Energy efficient light bulbs are cool already, but they are getting a whole lot cooler. The new LED EcoBulb by Seokjae Rhee raises the green bar with innovative features to save more energy.

About 3 million twinkling, high-efficiency, quarter-watt LED bulbs are now greeting visitors to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, nestled at the doorstep of the spectacular Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Gatlinburg welcomes over 11 million visitors a year.

The City of Gatlinburg’s commitment to convert the Gatlinburg Winter Magic Celebration lights program to 100 percent LED bulbs during 2008 has paid off in immediate and significant savings of electricity (not to mention reducing the City’s carbon dioxide emissions). LED lights use as much as 75 percent less energy, last ten times longer, produce (i.e., waste) almost no heat, and are more durable than glass bulbs. The City — like millions of Americans — have discovered that going green with LED lighting saves green and helps preserve the environment.  As I write about in ECOpreneuring, the “greentech” or clean tech sector, of which LED lighting is but one such technology, is booming.

A new Kansas-based company called EcoFit Lighting believes it can make the transition to LED street lighting not only much easier, but also much cheaper.

EcoFit’s design is a retrofit module that slides right into place in existing streetlights, eliminating the need to have a full replacement. The company claims using their product would bring down costs from $700 to $900 (for a complete replacement) to just $400. Savings also come in the form of energy efficiency and extended lifespan as EcoFit’s LED lights are 60 percent more efficient and last six times longer than sodium streetlights. Additionally, as it’s estimated that replacing street lights with EcoFit LED lights would take just five minutes (as opposed to taking up to 30 minutes to fully replace the head), labor costs are also expected to be reduced.

The California Public Utilities Commission has approved the largest energy efficiency program in U.S. history, authorizing $3.1 billion in consumer rebates and efficiency programs over the next three years. This brings the state a giant step closer to implementing AB32, according to Lara Ettenson, director of California Energy Efficiency Policy at the NRDC.

Ettenson told me that the funding comes from the part of the budget that California’s regulated utilities may use to invest in conventional electricity. This may include “negawatts” [...]

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is proposing a bill that would lend $30 billion dollars to American small and medium sized manufacturing companies who specialize in clean technology.  The bill would make American manufacturers a player in the clean technology market which faces stiff overseas competition.  It is estimated that 70% of the components for clean technology (much of which was invented in America) are made abroad.  So far, 150 businesses have come out and endorsed the Senator’s legislation.

For years, the consumer electronics industry has taken a bad rap with the green community - and deservedly so.  Cheap electronics components eat up considerable natural resources, need cheap labor to produce, and until recently, have been designed to be “throw-aways” when the latest and greatest widget comes along.

Nothing is ever black and white, or all bad without traces of good.  The world is full of grey areas, and electronics also create positive change. 

When driving to an new destination the other day, I noticed that I used much less gas because of my GPS than I normally would.  In the old days before Google maps and GPS technology, I used to get lost at least once, call on my cell phone or stop at the gas station to get directions, and generally take more time and fuel than necessary. 

Some will say this is just spatial ineptness - but I am willing to bet that others have had this problem too!

After a year-long demonstration project, the U.S. Navy is poised add its own contribution to reducing the military’s carbon bootprint - or carbon wake, as the case may be.  The Navy stands to gain up to 87% in savings for shipboard lighting, by switching from conventional light bulbs to high efficiency LED and HID systems developed through DARPA under the HEDLight (High Efficiency Distributed Lighting) program.  One recent retrofit has been accomplished by Ohio-based Energy Focus, Inc. Saving energy is just part of the picture: the quantum leap to HEDLight is also expected to yield significant gains in the Navy’s strategic efficiency.

Think back to the last direct-marketed product you saw on television. You probably remember the hyped-up pitch person, the “special offer” for buying now, the price that ends .95.  You may also remember thinking “Why would anyone want that?”

Yes… most of the products marketed on television border on useless crap.  They’re symbols of conspicuous consumption.  The sales pitch feels cheesy. And, yet, as I mentioned in Five Greenish Products You’ve Seen on TV, a small handful of them appeal to values we promote here at sustainablog: conservation, re-use, and efficiency.

I’ve come across a few more that strike me not only as appealing to these values (and perhaps a few others that are positive), but also as a great way to spread sustainable practices… even if they’re not necessarily labeled that way.  Again, I don’t know the lifecycles of these products.  I assume most of them are made in China. I wouldn’t call any of them “green,” or endorse them outright (or try to sell them through affiliate links here).  But they’re definitely “greenish”… and if direct marketers are selling products by appealing to some of the values mentioned above, that’s an ever-so-small step forward. Here we go…

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, along with President Bill Clinton, will retrofit LA with 140,000 LED streetlights starting this June. The initiative will save the city $48 million, and reduce carbon emissions by 197,000 tons.

The battle between CFL and LED bulbs may finally be over thanks to researchers at Cambridge University who have developed a $3 LED bulb that lasts for 60 years. The bulb, which is smaller than a penny, is 12 times more efficient than tungsten bulbs and three times more efficient than fluorescent bulbs.