Fact Sheet
Number 32
August 1995
Office of Pollution Prevention, Ohio Environmental Protection
Agency, P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, OH 43216-1049, (614) 644-3469
Donald R. Schregardus, Director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
It is estimated that lighting currently accounts for 20-25 percent of annual energy consumption in the United States. Of the energy used for lighting, 80-90 percent is consumed by industries, businesses, offices, and warehouses. Recent advances in lighting technologies are providing business managers significant opportunities to improve energy efficiency, minimize energy-associated expenses, and reduce pollution associated with energy production.
To maximize these opportunities, U.S. EPA has created a number of cooperative energy efficiency programs designed to mutually benefit the environment and the economy. One of these programs, Green Lights, provides an excellent opportunity for businesses to take advantage of a unique public/private partnership promoting the use of energy-efficient lighting.
The Green Lights Program encourages organizations to voluntarily explore the economic and environmental benefits of energy- efficient lighting. To further this goal, U.S. EPA offers a full range of services to encourage corporations, environmental groups, electric utilities, and state and local governments to participate in the Green Lights Program.
GREEN LIGHTS: ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
The Green Lights Program is a unique initiative that demonstrates that energy efficiency and pollution prevention need not be mutually exclusive goals. The program presents an opportunity for organizations to make contributions to environmental protection while substantially reducing the amount of money spent on energy consumption.
Generating electricity often requires burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil or natural gas. Burning these fuels produces a variety of pollutants associated with smog, greenhouse warming, and other air quality concerns. By switching to energy efficient lighting, less energy is consumed and pollution is thereby reduced.
U.S. EPA believes that the Green Lights Program can reduce lighting energy demand by up to fifty percent, and if fully implemented, could reduce national energy demand by more than 10 percent. This would result in reductions of carbon dioxide emissions of 202 million metric tons--the equivalent of the exhaust of 44 million cars. Further, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions would be reduced by 1.3 million and 600,000 million metric tons, respectively. Finally, U.S. EPA estimates that the Green Lights Program could save 226.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year, resulting in estimated savings of nine billion annually.
GREEN LIGHTS: PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
Who are Green Lights Participants?
Since Green Lights began in January 1991, more than 1,910 organizations have joined the program. Participants include businesses and industries of all sizes, nonprofit organizations, universities and colleges, and federal, state, and local government agencies.
What Commitments Do Green Lights Participants Make?
In an effort to make the Green Lights Program accessible to all types of organizations, U.S. EPA has designated three distinct levels of program participation. Depending on the type of organization, participants in the Green Lights Program are designated as Partners, Allies, or Endorsers. All participants sign and follow a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) designed to reflect their designated level of participation. The MOU outlines activities that the program participant and U.S. EPA will strive to accomplish within five years of joining the program.
Green Lights Partners include corporations, federal agencies, state and local governments, environmental organizations, non-profit organizations, health care facilities, and schools, universities and colleges. A Partner agrees to survey the lighting in all of its U.S. facilities, consider a full range of lighting upgrades that maximize energy savings and maintain or enhance present lighting quality, and complete 90 percent of those upgrades that are determined to be profitable. Further, Partners are asked to endorse the Green Lights concept and educate employees about the benefits of energy-efficient lighting.
Green Lights Allies include lighting manufacturers, lighting management companies, electric utilities, lighting surveyors, and lighting distributors. An Ally typically agrees to all of the commitments of a Partner. However, Allies also agree to help U.S. EPA promote the benefits of energy-efficient lighting, educate industry about the benefits of energy-efficient lighting, and work with U.S. EPA to encourage development and use of new lighting technologies.
Green Lights Endorsers include professional associations, trade associations, academies, boards, institutes, and societies. Endorser commitments to the Green Lights Program differ substantially from those of Partners or Allies. Given the organizational structure of most Endorsers, it is not feasible to require lighting retrofits as part of the Endorser MOU. Instead, Endorsers simply agree to work closely with U.S. EPA to educate their membership about the benefits of energy-efficient lighting and to encourage participation in the Green Lights Program.
HOW DOES U.S. EPA SUPPORT GREEN LIGHTS PARTICIPANTS?
To assist Green Lights participants in completing MOU activities, U.S. EPA offers many technical services free of charge. Services include: state-of-the-art computer software enabling companies to survey their lighting systems and assess their lighting upgrade options; a financial registry to help participants finance Green Lights activities; unbiased lighting product performance reports; and technical assistance hotlines and training programs to assist participants when technical problems arise. U.S. EPA further assists participants by publicizing their environmental leadership through EPA-generated news articles, media events, and public service advertisements.
To keep participants updated on the program, EPA distributes the Green Lights Update, a publication that contains the latest information on program developments, achievements of Green Lights participants, and energy-efficiency issues of interest. EPA also distributes Light Briefs, a series of easy-to-understand fact sheets on energy-efficient lighting technologies. A variety of other informational materials, including brochures and videos that cover various aspects of the program, are also available.
OHIO AND THE GREEN LIGHTS PROGRAM
The State of Ohio is the first state in U.S. EPA Region V, and one of the first large industrial states, to become a Partner in the Green Lights Program. Ohio EPA Director Donald R. Schregardus has stated that Ohio is participating in the Green Lights Program to further its "leadership role in environmental protection and energy-efficient practices and to act as a role model for Ohio businesses and citizens."
The Ohio Department of Administrative Services (DAS) and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) are responsible for coordinating the State's Green Lights activities. DAS' Office of Energy Services is conducting lighting surveys of all state-owned buildings and installing energy-efficient upgrades in those areas where it is considered profitable.
Ohio EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention (OPP) has committed to promote Green Lights and to help other organizations participate in the program. OPP has developed a comprehensive Green Lights Marketing Strategy designed to provide Ohio organizations with Green Lights information, supplement U.S. EPA's support system, and act as a local liaison with the Green Lights Program Office.
CASE STUDIES OF OHIO GREEN LIGHTS PARTICIPANTS
Green Lights Partners
The University of Cincinnati (U. of C.) became a Green Lights Partner in April 1994, and has already completed university-wide retrofits of lighting fixtures in classrooms, lecture halls and offices. University officials surveyed 3,984,531 square feet of lighted space, of which 2,890,974 square feet were retrofitted. Officials replaced T12 40-watt fluorescent lamps and magnetic ballasts with T8 32-watt lamps and electronic ballasts.
The university invested $1,569,683 to complete the upgrades. However, the projects carried an overall internal rate of return (IRR) of 110 percent, paying for themselves in less than a year. U. of C. officials estimate that the university has reduced its energy consumption by 20 million kilowatt hours per year, saving approximately $943,166 annually in lighting energy costs. In addition, these upgrades have drastically reduced pollution associated with energy production. Emissions of carbon dioxide have been reduced by 29,756,000 pounds per year; sulfur dioxides by 216,000 pounds per year; and nitrogen oxides by 114,000 pounds per year.
White Castle System, Inc. became a Green Lights Partner in 1991 and surveyed 762,000 square feet of lighted space in its chain of fast food restaurants. Of the area surveyed, 100 percent was determined to be profitable for lighting upgrades. T12 40-watt fluorescent cool white lamps (F40CW) and magnetic ballasts were replaced with T8 lamps and electronic ballasts with specular reflectors.
White Castle's Green Lights efforts are significantly reducing energy-related pollution. On an annual basis, the company is preventing emissions of 14,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, 175,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide, and 60,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides.
Green Lights Allies
American Electric Power Company (AEP) became a Green Lights Ally in December 1992. Although this case study focuses on AEP's Ohio subsidiaries, it should be noted that the company also is completing Green Lights activities in all of its facilities in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. At AEP's Ohio subsidiaries, Columbus Southern Power Company and Ohio Power Company, more than 3.3 million square feet of offices, power plants and substations have already been surveyed, with only 100,000 square feet remaining. Of the 3.3 million square feet surveyed, AEP has determined that 2.8 million (85%) could be profitably retrofitted with Green Lights upgrades.
AEP is replacing T12 40-watt fluorescent lamps and incandescent 150-watt parabolic aluminized reflector (PAR) lamps with a combination of T8 32-watt fluorescent lamps, 18 to 26 watt compact fluorescent lamps, and 90- to 120-watt halogen lamps. Further, magnetic ballasts are being replaced with electronic ballasts with less than 10 percent harmonic distortion. In new buildings, AEP has elected to install T8 lamps with electronic ballasts and deep-cell parabolic louvres.
At its Ohio facilities alone. AEP will invest approximately four million to complete lighting upgrades. Depending on the project, the company has estimated IRR to vary between 20 and 100 percent. In all, AEP expects to save 10 million kilowatt hours per year from Green Lights activities in its Ohio facilities. Further, AEP Green Lights activities in Ohio will annually prevent emissions of an estimated 17,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, 103,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide, and 40,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide.
In addition to conducting its own lighting surveys and upgrades, AEP is actively assisting U.S. EPA in its efforts to promote the Green Lights Program. The company recently developed and implemented a one-year marketing plan by which industrial and commercial customers were contacted about Green Lights and encouraged to join the program. In addition, AEP has incorporated messages about Green Lights and energy-efficient lighting into customer billing inserts, speaking engagements, brochures, video tapes, annual reports, advertising displays and news releases.
GE Lighting, a division of the General Electric Company, became a Green Lights Ally in May 1991. The company operates its worldwide headquarters near Cleveland, and also maintains 14 manufacturing facilities and one large distribution center within Ohio borders.
To date, GE Lighting has surveyed five and a half million square feet of manufacturing facilities, warehouses and offices. Nearly a quarter of this space has been upgraded with energy-efficient lighting since the start of the program, and many additional projects are in progress or are planned for future implementation. Traditionally, a variety of fluorescent and high intensity discharge (HID) lamps have been used throughout GE's facilities. The most cost-effective upgrades include replacing Tl2 40-watt fluorescent lamps and magnetic ballasts with T8 lamps and electronic ballasts.
GE Lighting has invested more than one million dollars in Green Lights upgrades to date, and additional investments are ongoing. The company estimates the average IRR on Green Lights projects to be 29 percent. Savings are expected to be more than $300,000 per year and the anticipated payback period is only slightly more than three years.
In addition, GE officials estimate that Green Lights upgrades will ultimately prevent emissions of 7,881,537 pounds of carbon dioxide per year, 100,394 pounds of sulfur dioxides per year, and 33,786 pounds of nitrogen oxides per year.
GE Lighting meets its Green Lights Ally commitment by conducting two-day lighting conferences at the GE Lighting Institute. These conferences are held exclusively for Green Lights Partners twice a year. The normal conference fee is waived, allowing Partners to receive two days of targeted training free-of-charge. Conferences are presented by a faculty of nationally recognized experts in lighting systems and applications.
GE Lighting also includes an overview of Green Lights in many of its conferences for distributors, contractors, specifiers, users, and utility professionals. Green Lights information is also included in company sales, training and education materials. For these efforts, GE Lighting was awarded a Certificate of Distinction Award by the U.S. EPA Green Lights Program in 1993.
Green Lights Endorsers
The Ohio Hospitals Association (OHA) became a Green Lights Endorser in September 1993. OHA is an association of most of Ohio's 200-plus hospitals, and has successfully reached all of its membership with Green Lights information. OHA uses a number of media to encourage participation in the Green Lights Program, such as educational and training programs, exhibits and press conferences, association newsletter articles and presentations at OHA's quarterly environmental policy committee meetings. OHA has also co-sponsored a Green Lights Training Workshop with U.S. EPA and has prepared and distributed Green Lights information packages to most Ohio hospitals.
So far, OHA has successfully recruited more than 20 hospitals to participate in Green Lights. These hospitals represent more than four million square feet of lighted space. OHA continues to support the Green Lights Program and encourages more Ohio hospitals to explore the environmental and economic benefits of energy-efficient lighting.
This is the thirty-second in a series of fact sheets Ohio EPA has prepared on pollution prevention. For more information, call the Office of Pollution Prevention at (614) 644-3469.
GREEN LIGHTS CONTACT INFORMATION:
Energy Star Programs U.S. EPA (6202J) 401 M Street, SW Washington, D.C. 20460 (202) 775-6650 Fax: (202) 775-6680
Craig Butler Ohio EPA Office of Pollution Prevention (614) 728-1261
John Hansan Ohio Department of Administrative Services (614) 644-5901
The Office of Pollution Prevention was created to encourage multimedia pollution prevention activities within the state of Ohio, including source reduction and environmentally sound recycling practices. The office analyzes, develops, and publicizes information and data related to pollution prevention. Additionally, the office works to increase awareness of pollution prevention opportunities through education, outreach, and technical assistance programs directed toward business, government, and the public.
Last Updated: April 21, 1997