Grocery Stores uses LED Lighting in their Sustainability Model

Star Market’s renovated store in Chestnut Hill in Newton, Mass., is breaking new ground for the supermarket industry in terms of sustainability, combining the use of fuel cell electricity, LED lighting, and glycol/carbon dioxide refrigeration. Not only is it the first grocery store in the nation to receive the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership platinum award, but it’s one of the first to be lit entirely with LEDs.

The advanced refrigeration technology in the store, which is part of Supervalu’s Shaw/Star Market line of supermarkets, significantly reduces its impact on climate change and the stratospheric ozone layer by cutting the use of refrigerants by 85%, compared with the typical supermarket. The heat-exchange fluids for the refrigeration systems are glycol (for cooler cases, such as dairy) and carbon dioxide (for the colder freezer cases). The use of glycol and carbon dioxide will translate into a reduction in refrigerant charge of up to 90%.

“This store shows that smart design and advanced technologies help us right now to better protect our climate, the ozone layer, and our health,” said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.

The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership is an EPA cooperative alliance with the supermarket industry to promote advanced technologies, strategies, and practices that reduce refrigerant charges and emissions of ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases.

The supermarket is powered by an ultra-clean fuel cell, which is virtually pollution free. It uses natural gas, and its by-products are water and heat energy. By using the fuel cell, Star Market is guaranteed power at all times for refrigeration, HVAC, elevators, cash registers and lighting. The harnessed heat energy will cool refrigeration cases (through absorption chiller technology) year round and heat the store in the winter. By providing virtually all the power for the store, the fuel cell does not tax the public power grid.

Lighting: Solid-state lighting, or LEDs, provide all the illumination, both on the exterior and interior, at the supermarket, which has about 35,000 sq. ft. of selling space. The LEDs, are expected to last eight to 10 years. In contrast, conventional lighting lasts approximately eight to 18 months. Star Market estimates that the LEDS will reduce energy usage by 50% to 65.

The lighting was supplied by Osram Sylvania.

In other energy-saving features, automated pull-down shades cover the deli and produce cases.

According to published reports, the Chestnut Hill store is a test lab for energy-efficient technologies that Supervalu hopes to use next in California.

Timberland Co Changing Retail Lighting to LED

The Timberland Co. is replacing the incandescent spotlights in 70% of its North American stores with state-of-the-art LED lighting. The initiative, to be completed by year-end, is part of the company’s larger effort to reduce its overall energy consumption. By reducing the electricity used on a daily basis for lighting in its stores, Timberland expects to shrink the carbon footprint of its U.S. stores by an additional 11%.

“Our retail store design puts our environmental commitment into action,” said John Trott, Timberland’s VP North America consumer direct. “Where you walk, what you touch, how the lighting showcases our product with the least impact on our environment, all reflect our heritage of environmental stewardship.”

Standard Electric supplies all of Timberland’s in-store lighting, including the new LED lamps, which are more than twice as efficient as the comparative foot-candle incandescent bulbs being replaced. LED lamps feature a service life of more than 10 years, and represent the company’s ongoing commitment to take advantage of advances in energy-efficiency technology.

“All of our new U.S. stores are built to LEED-certification standards, but the green standard of even six months ago is not the standard of today,” said Al Buell, manager of store construction, Timberland. ”Shifting to LED lighting is a part of a small but fast-growing trend that is redefining green design.”

In all, 49 of Timberland’s 70 North American stores will convert to LED lighting. The new bulbs will consume 80% less energy -- an average of 56 watts per bulb down to 10 watts per bulb resulting in an estimated 505 metric ton decrease in carbon emissions annually.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market uses LED Lighting to Acheive Energy Savings

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is reporting energy consumption that is 32 percent lower than the industry average for energy usage per square foot across the Tesco banner’s 130 stores, according to Verisae, Inc., a Minneapolis-based provider of sustainability software.

Fresh & Easy achieved recurring energy-related cost savings of more than $3 million dollars per year, Verisae said. El Segundo, Calif.-based Fresh & Easy uses the company’s energy, environmental and asset management solutions in all locations to drive operational efficiencies, adhere to regulatory compliance and lower its environmental impact.

“These results are very impressive, because the grocer’s percentage of refrigeration floor area per square foot is about 30 percent greater than most other supermarkets,” noted Dr. Abtar Singh, VP of energy for Verisae. “They’re able to maintain low energy consumption through constant monitoring and managing energy usage.”

Fresh & Easy’s innovative store designs, including upgraded lighting systems and energy-free glass doors, work with Verisae’s Sustainability Resource Planning platform to reduce the chain’s carbon footprint.

“We have designed our stores to be as energy efficient as possible, from LED lighting to prismatic insulated skylights. Using less energy in our stores is not only good for the environment, it [also] helps us lower our customers’ food bills,” said Steve Hagen, Fresh & Easy’s director of procurement, engineering and maintenance.

Verisae’s sustainability solutions helped the retailer lower refrigerant usage with a leak rate under 10 percent. At roughly 10,000 square feet, Fresh & Easy’s stores are smaller than typical supermarkets. They are found in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

Reprinted from Progressive Grocer

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Simon Property Group Retrofitted Lighting in Kiosks with LED Technology

Simon Property Group, the country's largest shopping center owner, developer and manager is taking advantage of the tremendous energy savings that can be realized by retrofitting their lighting with LED lights. It has retrofitted nearly 650 carts and kiosks in 29 malls from New Jersey to New Hampshire with energy-efficient LED lamps.

Simon decided to replace the haolgen reflector lights that were used in the self-standing carts and kiosks with 5 watt replacement LED lamps. "While providing the same high-quality lighting that Simon mall shoppers have come to expect, the Lighting Science Group energy-efficient LED lamps will reduce energy consumption by 85%, save over 1.3 million kWh of electricity, annually, and will have a positive impact on the environment by avoiding the emission of 944 metric tons of CO2," said George Caraghiaur, VP energy services at Simon.

It’s expected that Simon will also realize an immediate positive impact on its bottom line, with an annual operational savings of over $250,000 and a payback in 10 months, according to Zach Gibler, CEO of Lighting Science Group.

The energy-savings calculation for the retrofit is based on replacing 10,000 35-watt halogen lamps with 5-watt LED retrofit lamps operating 12 hours/day at $0.15/kWh rate. Maintenance savings has also been included in the payback analysis.

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The Future of LED Lighting is Now

When LEDs were discovered in the‘60s, they had relatively limited applications. Now, however, they’re doing hundreds of different types of jobs. They give light to traffic signals, take the place of LCDs in television sets, light up the jumbo boards at entertainment arenas, illuminate streets, parking lots and provide architectural and spot lighting for building exteriors and interior spaces. Adoption of these and other applications has been growing exponentially because, other than the sun, LEDs are the most efficient light source on the planet.

Smarter Than The Average Bulb

LEDs are different than conventional bulbs in that they fit directly into an electrical circuit. Instead of creating light by heating filaments or electronically exciting mercury vapor or other gases, they are illuminated by electrons that run through the semiconductor material to which they’re attached. Because there are no filaments, LEDs don’t get hot and, due to their efficiency, they require far less electric power than traditional light bulbs. They’re about 10 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs and double the efficiency of fluorescents. When you consider that they last 6 times longer than fluorescents (and easily outlast incandescent and HID bulbs by 40 times), the equation can yield a savings of up to 80% on lighting costs. Since lighting accounts for approximately 40% of total energy spend in buildings (lighting consumes 29% of all the electricity in the US), an LED retrofit can cut anenergy bill up to 40%!

True, LEDs are significantly more expensive to purchase initially—but the ROI over just one year is phenomenal, and the cost is continually coming down. LEDs are also much kinder to the environment and eliminate the hazards of mercury toxicity, CO2 emissions, etc.

Numbers Don’t Lie

Imagine an office with a bay of 2' x 4' fluorescent tubes that run from 9-5 weekdays at a cost of about $100 per year for electricity. To light the same area, LED tubes would cost only $30 a year. Every 100 lighting bays, therefore, represents an annual savings potential of 7,000—even more, actually, because of the life expectancy of the bulbs. The LEDs will last for 50,000 hours (25 years at 2,000 hours per typical year); by comparison, the fluorescent bulbs will burn for an estimated 20,000 hours, and they will lose 60% of their light output after 12,000 hours. The reduced maintenance costs could boost lighting savings beyond 80%.

Of the 1.5 billion sf of central business district office inventory in the US, the average floor plate is approximately 25,000 sf. Fire codes typically require one fire escape per 10,000 sf.
Extrapolating from that, there are approximately 150,000 fire escape doors in the central business districts of the nation. If just these fire escape doors were retrofit with LED tube bulbs, applying the 80% savings factor would result in a national savings of $54 million (or an expenditure of $13.5 million per year as opposed to the $67.5 million for the currently used low-tech fluorescent tubes). Over an 8-year period, the collective savings would exceed $400 million for just fire door illumination!

A major east coast hotel with significant convention and meeting space had a run rate of just over 5 million kWh per year for its lighting. The annualized lighting cost for 2009 was slated to be $492,000; with deregulation in 2010, the cost could have increased to $690,000. In 2009, however, the hotel performed an LED retrofit. It is now projected that electricity consumption will drop to just over 665,000 kWh and the lighting costs for 2010 will be just under 90,000—an annual savings of $600,000! For a million square feet, the $.60 per sf tax deduction adds another $600,000. In a 33 percent tax bracket, the net to bottom line savings is $200,000.

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Green Design Meets Industrial Space

By Edmund B. Klimeck
KSS Architects

In the past decade, sustainable design has gone from catchphrase to prerequisite for property and building owners. The U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system has spurred conversations on "greening the project" in planning and construction meetings nationwide. Its ubiquity is evident by the number of universities, municipalities and office properties touting their latest LEED-certified buildings. Due to its monumental and vital role in national and worldwide trade, industrial real estate has significant impact on the environment.

"Lighting makes up an enormous percentage of overall energy usage in a warehouse."

Though some people thought "industrial" and "sustainable design" would never appear in the same sentence, the unique nature of projects in this market presents substantial green opportunities. By stepping back from the buildings and rethinking the role of distribution centers in the supply chain, we can build projects that are arguably good for the environment. While LEED has helped us come a long way to creating green buildings, at the end of the day, we need to remember sustainability is not about points, but about the environmental, economical and community benefits.

Location, Location, Location
The industrial market's greatest opportunity for environmental responsibility is through strategic site selection. Warehouses have the unique attribute of being more than just independent buildings: Each project is a point in a large-scale supply chain. To maximize the lifespan and minimize the environmental impact of warehouses, we must consider two key factors in the site selection process: (1) the places and people they will serve; (2) the places and people that will serve them.

Selecting sites at or adjacent to the ports where the goods will be transported automatically reduces the overall journey of the goods from arrival to distribution and the associated carbon emissions. Commercial trucks account for more than half the soot and a quarter of the smog-causing pollution generated on highways, and consume more than one-tenth of the country's oil. Every gallon of diesel fuel roughly emits 22.2 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Since the average truck gets about 6 miles per gallon, reductions in transportation distances equate to reductions in carbon emissions. For every 10 miles trucks don't have to travel, we use 1.7 fewer gallons of diesel and prevent 38 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

To put into perspective the environmental impact of trucking distance, let's look at the case of a 100,000 sf warehouse in the Mid-Atlantic region. A modern-day warehouse, with typical lighting and heating conditions and a significant equipment energy load, consumes about 6,600 mmBTUs per year. A diesel truck consumes about 23 BTUs per mile. If the 100,000 sf warehouse is serviced by 20 trucks per day, 260 days a year, and we can reduce the length of each truck trip by 55 miles, then we will have saved enough energy to run the warehouse for the entire year. Furthermore, if the trucks have a common starting and going point, such as a highway interchange, then the required reduction distance can be cut in half; i.e., locating the warehouse 28 miles closer to the interchange will save enough energy to power the warehouse for the entire year.

It is important to note that the word "port" does not only refer to the traditional seaport. Although they are not coastal cities, Dallas and Chicago are thriving "inland ports" that are primary points of service in the national supply chain. Chicago, serviced by five federal highways, six major railroads, and two airports, is the link for the country's inland river system and the Great Lakes. Dallas, serviced by five interstates, two airports, and rail service, has designated foreign trade zone areas and signed strategic agreements with the port of Houston, four Mexican ports, and the Panama Canal. Dallas and Chicago use the benefits from intermodal facilities--the consequence and instigator for their comprehensive railroad, highway, and airport infrastructure--to develop strategic plans for becoming and maintaining their roles as integral port cities. Many of the nation's largest distribution centers are in their suburbs.

Smart Industrial Anywhere
The lack of immediate port access for reasons such as limited availability or cost does not preclude projects or their sites from being sustainable. However, it does require more careful consideration of local and regional planning.

Suburban Cranbury, N.J., is an example of how planning and execution has led to a successful sustainable, yet suburban, site development. Adjacent to Interchange 8A of the New Jersey Turnpike, 30 miles from Port Newark, the Township of Cranbury considered and promoted warehouse development through a carefully crafted and reworked zoning ordinance. The ordinance created industrial zones that were located close to the Turnpike, reducing travel time and impact from truck traffic, and established a mechanism for an improved roadway infrastructure that will more efficiently direct traffic to the turnpike. Furthermore, the township purchased open greenspace and preserved farmland with the additional revenue the "upzoned" industrial district generated.

The Importance of Urban Industrial
The Cranbury case study illustrates smart industrial design can occur anywhere. Even greater gains in sustainability can be realized when warehouses are located in an urban setting. Urban industrial sites are not only located close to where goods are arriving, but they are also closer to their final destination--the consumers.

Urban site selection leads to another significant and unique environmental opportunity: the ability to develop former industrial sites, brownfields, and landfills, and restore industrial economic infrastructure to former industrial cities. These sites, many of which have become underutilized, contaminated or abandoned, are near established communities and an available workforce, and can provide a source of revenue for communities. Much of the infrastructure, such as truck routes, railroad or even dock access, that supported the former industry often remains and can continue to support modern distribution.

As a new industry, distribution centers also offer unique opportunities for the cities that house them. At the edges of urban centers, large-scale flat roofs offer the opportunity for power generation; as a rule of thumb, every million square feet of solar panels on a roof can potentially produce one megawatt of electrical energy. The centers can also offer opportunities to reconnect cities to a lost waterfront through integrated greenscape and stormwater management facilities.

In this new vision of urban industrial development, industry no longer drains resources, but provides them. It no longer damages the environment, but cleans it. It provides employment opportunities rather than forcing residents to commute away from home. This vision is in practice now. One such project is near the Pulaski Skyway in Jersey City, N.J., developed by AMB Property Corporation and designed by KSS Architects.

Sustainable Warehouse Buildings
Site planning and response to an urban opportunity and industrial heritage are sustainable design aspects distinctive of distribution centers. These criteria define the context of warehouse development.

The design of the actual building can further contribute to the project's sustainability and energy savings. Code requires only minimal thermal performance. However, insulation systems exist in wall and roof construction that have high environmental impact. Lighting makes up an enormous percentage of overall energy usage in a warehouse. Replacing high-intensity discharge (HID) fixtures with fluorescent fixtures and incorporating occupancy sensors can significantly reduce energy usage and have early paybacks. The incorporation of daylighting strategies, which also improve the quality of the internal environment, also helps.

Warehouse structures have enormous potential for using recycled and locally produced materials, with high percentages of concrete and steel in the overall construction. Relative to overall investment, the design can easily incorporate showers, dedicated parking spaces for hybrid vehicles, and bike racks in support of a sustainably minded workforce. Outlets at dock doors to support shore power systems in trucks can reduce fuel-wasteful idling.

For roof systems, a white thermoplastic olefin (TPO) membrane instead of the conventional EPDM roofing can help reduce cooling costs, particularly in areas receiving long periods of sunlight throughout the year. In a building where the roof square footage is large, the change in materials has a great impact. The roofs, often expansive and flat, also provide an opportunity to capture large amounts of rainwater, which can be recycled and reused for gray water irrigation, toilet flushing, and custodial uses.

By improving the energy efficiency of these individual building aspects, we can significantly surpass LEED-CS standards because of the innate sustainable opportunities that arise from warehouses, their sizes, and usage patterns. Click here for rest of article


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Green Stimulus Money Not Hitting Market Fast

The nation's green-building industry is awaiting billions of dollars in economic-stimulus funding earmarked to make government buildings more energy efficient. But based on the slow pace of allocations thus far, it could take months or years for spending to trickle down to contractors.

The General Services Administration, which oversees the federal government's property, was allocated $5.5 billion as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress in February, of which $2 billion should be allocated before Dec. 31. The initiative is designed to create jobs and to pioneer cutting-edge technology in construction that is environmentally friendly.

At a time when construction on private projects has stalled, advocates of green building hope the GSA, which is America's largest landlord with a 1,500-building portfolio, can use its purchasing power and nationwide reach to lower costs, test emerging products and educate the industry.

rest of article at wsjonline.com

The value of having the government lead the industry on such projects "is priceless," said Jason Hartke, vice president of national policy for the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

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GSA
Leah Nash for The Wall Street Journal

The Edith-Green Wendell Wyatt Building in Portland, Ore., is set for a new exterior "skin" that will make it more energy efficient, including 20,000 solar cells and a series of vegetation fins along one side.
GSA
GSA

But so far, the agency has allocated just $1.5 billion, or 75%, of the funds it was appropriated for 2009 and is racing to allot an additional $500 million by the end of the year, just two weeks away. The agency said bids for work are coming in under budget, a good thing, but one that slows them down from meeting its benchmark.

In addition, the GSA has paid out only $89 million. "What we've got now is a lot of architects working overtime to get the work done," said Bob Peck, the agency's commissioner of public buildings. Mr. Peck said the delay in spending reflects the long lead time required to draw up building plans, which can take a minimum of six to nine months.

Economists said the delays in putting the funds to work illustrate the challenges of trying to quickly create new jobs in an industry that traditionally moves slowly. And government planners tend to move more slowly than private industry, according to developers.

"Obviously, [the funds] would have to be outlaid for it to create jobs," said Kermit Baker, chief economist for the American Institute of Architects. "But once [companies] feel that money is coming through the pipeline, it'll have a dramatic effect."

The projects that are furthest along are those that already were in the works, but on hold due to lack of funding. For example, the agency broke ground on a federal courthouse in Austin, Texas, in September. Planning began eight years ago.

Grocery Stores Can Benefit From LED Lighting

Grocery stores in the U.S. use an average of 52.5 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity and 38,000 Btu of natural gas per square foot annually. In a typical grocery, refrigeration and lighting represent about 47% of total use (Figure 1), making these systems the best targets for energy savings.

Energy costs account for 15 percent of a grocery store’s operating budget. Because grocery stores’ profit margins are so thin – on the order of 1 percent – every dollar in energy savings is equivalent to increasing sales by $59.

You will be better able to manage your building’s energy costs if you understand how you are charged for energy. Most utilities charge commercial buildings for their natural gas based on the amount of energy delivered. Electricity, on the other hand, can be charged based on two measures – consumption and demand (Figure 2).

The consumption component of the bill is based on how much electricity, in kWh, the building consumes during a month. The demand component is the peak demand, in kilowatts (kW), occurring within the month or, for some utilities, during the previous 12 months. Monthly demand charges can range from a few dollars per kW to upwards of $20/kW. Peak demand can be a considerable percentage of your bill, so care should be taken to reduce it whenever possible. As you read these energy cost management recommendations, keep in mind how each one will affect both your consumption and your demand.

On Suggested Solution

Upgrade to more efficient lighting

Lighting is critical to creating ambiance and making merchandise attractive to shoppers. High-quality lighting design can reduce energy bills and drive sales. If your facility uses T12 fluorescent lamps, relamping with high-performance T8 lamps and electronic ballasts can reduce your lighting energy consumption by 35 percent. Adding specular reflectors and new lenses and reducing the number of lamps can double the savings. Occupancy sensors or timers can add further savings in storerooms and other staff-only areas. Paybacks of one to three years are common.

Changing refrigerated display-case lighting to light-emitting diode (LED) light strips saves energy and has been shown to appeal to customers significantly more than linear fluorescent lamps. LEDs are more than 40 percent more efficient than T8 lamps, provide a more-even light distribution, are dimmable and have a long lifetime. In stores that remain opened 24 hours a day, LEDs can be tied to occupancy sensors so the display cases are only illuminated when customers are present. The waste heat from LEDs can be dissipated outside the case, something fluorescent lighting can’t do, resulting in reduced refrigeration energy: For every watt in reduced energy consumption, there is an additional 0.48-watt savings from reduced refrigeration demands.

Grocery stores with high ceilings might want to consider using T5 lamps and indirect fixtures to boost both lighting quality and lighting efficiency. T5 lamps are far more energy efficient and offer better light quality than either the high-intensity discharge lights or the older-style T12 and T8 linear fluorescent lamps typically found in high-ceilinged stores.
Use Smart Lighting Design in parking lots

Most parking lots are designed with far more lighting than the 1 foot-candle or lower average that the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America’s Lighting Handbook (2000) recommends. Using lower-wattage bulbs can actually increase the safety of your lot – an overlit lot can be dangerous to drivers if their eyes cannot adjust quickly enough in the transition from highly lit to dark areas. When designing lighting for a new parking lot, consider low-wattage metal halide lamps in fixtures that direct the light downward, rather than high-pressure sodium lamps. Even with a lower wattage, a grocery store could safely use fewer lamps if this choice is made. Metal halide is less efficient than high-pressure sodium in conventional terms but it puts out more light in the blue part of the spectrum, which turns out to be easier for our eyes to see under low-light conditions.

LED lighting has emerged as an even more efficient parking lot option than high-intensity lighting. However, because the Energy Star program does not currently include parking lots in its list of acceptable LED applications and because LEDs’ high initial costs result in long payback periods, be sure to conduct a thorough analysis before you commit to LED lighting for your parking lot.

OSRAM Study Confirms LED Lighting Benefits

The aim of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors' LCA is therefore to analyse the environmental impact of an LED lamp over its entire life and to compare it with a compact fluorescent lamp and an incandescent lamp. The relevant material and energy supplies were determined in detail for all the LED lamp's components and production processes. Apart from a detailed analysis of each individual production stage, for LED chips and lamp housings, for example, these also include all necessary transports such as the transport of an LED lamp from its production site in China to its place of installation in Europe.

Apart from direct input of raw materials, the energy input, materials and emissions associated with the retrieval of resources are recorded. The results allow for conclusions not only on resource consumption and primary energy input but also acidification, eutrophication, the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion and toxicity.

The bottom line is that LED are efficient

In the first LCA, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors show that LED lamps are a genuine alternative to incandescent lamps, even when considering the cumulative energy input and environmental factors.

Often these fundamentally different lamps were compared based on their wattage. Conventional lamps with filaments are way behind diode lamps. A 40 Watt incandescent lamp, for example, can either be replaced by an 8W compact fluorescent light or, for some applications, by an 8W LED lamp, which means an energy saving of 80 percent.

In order to guarantee the comparability of results in the LCA, a lifetime of 25,000 hours was chosen as reference. The latest LED lamp generation (Parathom Classic A55 with Golden Dragon Plus LED) achieves precisely this rating. Therefore, 25 incandescent lamps (OSRAM Classic A 40W) with a lifetime of 1,000 hours and 2.5 fluorescent lamps (Dulux Superstar Classic A 8W) lasting 10,000 hours have to be used for a comparison.

Over 98 percent of the energy used to produce light

The study was done in collaboration with experts at Siemens Corporate Technology, Centre for Eco Innovations and shows that similar to compact fluorescent lamps with LED-based lamps over 98% of the energy used is consumed to generate light. Less than two percent is allocated to production. This has dismissed any concern that manufacturing of LED particularly might be very energy-intensive. In contrast to the primary energy consumption of incandescent lamps of around 3,300kWh, LED lamps use less than 700kWh. The bottom line is that LED lamps are therefore definitely more efficient than conventional incandescent lamps. Apart from this, the ratings that indicate the lamps' effects on the environment are consistently better than those for incandescent lamps. As the efficiency of LED continues to increase, LED lamps will be capable of achieving even better LCA results in future. Three independent experts are currently verifying the findings of the internal study.

Planning Needed for Green Projects

Finding Money to Green Your Business

By Andrew Winston

Contrary to the popular misconception that going green is expensive, in a very large range of cases, environmental initiatives don't raise costs, they lower them — and fast. In operational areas such as facilities (heating, cooling, lighting), fleet, IT, and waste, leading companies continue to find large savings in shockingly simple actions, such as changing lighting or using outside air to cool a data center.

But even for the most head-slappingly obvious changes with super-fast paybacks, companies still need to find the capital to buy the new bulbs, optimize the HVAC system, or add auxiliary power units (APUs) to trucks. And even if one sees these initiatives as investments, not costs (which is the right way to look at it), there will still be competition for dollars. During a recession — heck, at any time — it's normal to struggle to get funds for even worthy projects. So what to do?

A few leading companies have hit on one incredibly simple solution to this problem — set aside funds for green priorities. I don't mean coming up with a new pool of money; just assign a percentage of the existing capital expenditure budget to green priorities.

In 2008, to find hidden gems of savings, DuPont set aside 1% of capital expenditures solely for energy-saving ideas. With $50MM of spending, the company found $50MM of savings per year — a one-year payback that keeps on giving. All projects still met the corporate hurdle rate, so there was no special dispensation besides making the money available for worthy initiatives managers had overlooked. Building products maker Owens Corning goes even further, dedicating 10% of capex to energy projects. This is a tool nearly anyone can use. Set aside the funds for green and you'll unleash a wave of creativity and short paybacks.

So if there are so many quick, high-ROI projects sitting around, why aren't companies jumping on them? Two big reasons. First, energy efficiency just hasn't seemed sexy. Dawn Rittenhouse, DuPont's director of sustainable development, told me, "If business units can invest in growth or energy efficiency projects, it's more glamorous to go after growth." But in tight times, saving money starts to feel a lot more exciting, doesn't it?

The second reason is the classic problem of the urgent versus the important. Most capital expenditures go to fix things that are already broken. But as Frank O'Brien-Bernini, Owens Corning's chief sustainability officer, puts it, "It's really about redefining what 'broken' means." Think about it: a process that wastes energy may not feel broken with oil at $40, or even $80, a barrel. But it may look like a money-eating disaster at $200 a barrel. In essence, when it comes to energy and resource efficiency, all companies are broken.

Of course reserving some funds could meet resistance. One of my clients pointed out that their capex budget is not one pool, but really a bunch of sub-budgets for different groups. A green set-aside would have to draw money from somebody's hard-fought budget. But DuPont only allocated 1% to great effect. So it doesn't necessarily take a giant land grab to make this operational and cultural shift happen.

So when people say you don't have the money to invest in green, show them that you do. The reality is that unless you're in liquidation, you have a capex budget, even if it shrank this year. You're spending money on things all the time; it's simply an issue of where you place your bets.

Take a piece of what you're already spending, point it in the right direction, and you will find enormous green savings to help survive these (still) hard times — and invest in the future.

Andrew Winston is s the co-author of the best-seller Green to Gold and the author of Green Recovery (www.thegreenrecovery.com). He is dedicated to helping companies use environmental strategy to grow and create enduring value for their communities, customers, employees, and shareholders. His earlier career included advising companies on corporate strategy while at Boston Consulting Group and management positions in strategy and marketing at Time Warner and MTV. Today, Andrew advises the world’s biggest companies – including Bank of America, Pepsi, HP, and Boeing – and acts as a practical evangelist for the benefits of going green.

Follow Andrew on Twitter:twitter.com/GreenAdvantage