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How many light bulbs does it take to change the world?
source: fastcompany.com
In the next 12 months, starting with a major push this month, Wal-Mart wants to sell every one of its regular customers--100 million in all--one swirl bulb. In the process, Wal-Mart wants to change energy consumption in the United States, and energy consciousness, too. It also aims to change its own reputation, to use swirls to make clear how seriously Wal-Mart takes its new positioning as an environmental activist.
It's a bold goal, a remarkable declaration of Wal-Mart's intention to modernize and green up a whole line of business using market oomph. Teaming up with General Electric, which owns about 60% of the residential lightbulb market in the United States, Wal-Mart wants to single-handedly double U.S. sales for CFLs in a year, and it wants demand to surge forward after that.
Diane Lindsley, the hardware buyer who decides what goes in the lightbulb aisles at Wal-Mart, thinks 100 million swirls is perfectly reasonable. "Yes," she says, "it's rational, I think." Before she started buying bulbs for Wal-Mart just three years ago, Lindsley didn't even know what CFLs were. Now she pauses in a way that suggests the kind of determination Wal-Mart can bring to bear when its buyers decide they are going to sell Americans something. "We have plans in place to where it may not take that long." (read more)
In hopes of slowing global warming and creating “green jobs,” Congress and the incoming administration may soon impose a mandate that the nation get 10 or 15 percent of its electricity from renewable sources within a few years.
Yet the experience of states that have adopted similar goals suggests that passing that requirement could be a lot easier than achieving it. The record so far is decidedly mixed: some states appear to be on track to meet energy targets, but others have fallen behind on the aggressive goals they set several years ago.
The state goals have contributed to rapid growth of wind turbines and solar power stations in some areas, notably the West, but that growth has come on a minuscule base. Nationwide, the hard numbers provide a sobering counterpoint to the green-energy enthusiasm sweeping Washington. (read more)
When you do the numbers to decide whether to lease a car or buy, whether to rent a house or buy, you look at the costs projected months and years ahead, right? So why not with something as simple as a light bulb? Too much effort for the savings? Well let us break it down for you so you can make an informed decision next time you're at the store.
There are two basics types of light bulb, fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs. Incandescent bulbs are the most commonly used because they are the least expensive bulb by bulb, and also include a variety called halogen light bulbs. They are not the least expensive over time, even the halogen variation. (read
more)
U.S. Commercial Sector Potential Energy Savings
Barriers to unlocking energy efficiencies in the commercial sector can be overcome by greater use of efficiency standards, energy awareness education and new technology.
The potential energy savings of the U.S. commercial sector amount to nearly 6 trillion British Thermal Units (BTUs) of primary energy use, equivalent to over 1 million barrels of oil a year by the year 2020. Achieving this energy conservation in the commercial sector would also yield annual savings of nearly $300 billion while lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 360 megatons per year. (read more)
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