Climate Group CEO on LED Streetlights

Climate Group CEO: What We Can Learn from LED Streetlights From QFINANCE: The Ultimate Resource 4th Edition, Published September 2013 www.qfinance.com Mark Kenber is CEO of international NGO The Climate Group.

The Climate Group's LED street-lighting campaign started when we realized that, while consumers were taking up LED lighting and enjoying very substantial savings, as well as lowering the overall carbon footprint in their homes, this was simply not the case in many public spaces.

We formed a working party to look at the barriers to take-up and how we could overcome such barriers. The opportunities were huge, and ranged from Sydney, to Central Park in New York, to Calcutta. We looked to come up with a model that would enable fifteen pilot projects in twelve major cities to scale up their take-up of LED lighting, an opportunity currently being ignored.

The first problem any city fathers face is that the upfront costs for LED lighting are higher than for a sodium bulb, for example, but we impressed on city authorities that you get the costs back over two to three years, make substantial savings and lower your carbon footprint.

Another problem that we faced straight away was the the quality of a light bulb has for decades now been measured by the amount of electricity if consumes, so we expect a 40W bulb to be dimmer than a 100W bulb. Often, the instruments used to measure light don't give an idea of its quality.

The way in which we addressed this issue in Calcutta, for example, was first to have a pilot scheme of 150 LED lights and then to do surveys on the women and children using an LED-lit park. What emerged was that they felt significantly safer, which was interesting. Calcutta is now negotiating a loan to scale up its project to 15,000 bulbs and Sydney has committed to full LED lighting. What we intend to do now is to help a few states to prepare their tenders for LED street lighting, but we feel quite confident that we have done our bit in terms of demonstrating the potential out there.

For further information, or to contact the author about a longer piece or viewpoint, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Sophia.Blackwell@Bloomsbury.com- Tel: 020 7631 5831 About Mark Kenber and the Climate Group Mark Kenber has worked on climate change for fifteen years and is an expert on international climate policy. He cofounded the VCS (Voluntary Carbon Standard) now the most popular kitemark for the US$400 million voluntary market. The Climate Group is an independent, not-for-profit organization working to inspire and catalyze leadership for a Clean Revolution: a low carbon future that is smarter, better and more prosperous for all. www.theclimategroup.org/www.qfinance.com.

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