Simple change. Big results. Gospel of Global warming coming to
middle america.
Say what you like about WalMart, (hey, I get my CFL bulbs at the
local hardware..)
this is big...
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A bulb a day keeps the climate at bay: Wal-Mart to push CFLs
12:22 PM on 30 Aug 2006
We've heard scads about Wal-Mart turning over a big, fat green leaf (here and here and here and probably lots of other places, too).
Well, here's another one reported by Fast Company that really left my jaw hanging open:
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.
Of course they've got the old self-interest motive going:
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.
But that's still a s**tload of energy saved. It's a doubling of CFL sales in 1 year! In terms of energy savings, it stacks up like this:
<110,000,000 60 watt replacements are> enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island ... one bulb
is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/8/30/114642/765?source=daily
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http://www.fastcompany.com/subscr/108/open_lightbulbs.html
Sitting humbly on shelves in stores everywhere is a product, priced at less than $3, that will change the world. Soon. It is a fairly ordinary item that nonetheless cuts to the heart of a half-dozen of the most profound, most urgent problems we face. Energy consumption. Rising gasoline costs and electric bills. Greenhouse-gas emissions. Dependence on coal and foreign oil. Global warming.
Every swirl sold will eliminate demand for six to eight regular bulbs.
The product is the compact fluorescent lightbulb, a quirky-looking twist of frosted glass. In the energy business, it is called a "CFL," or an "energy saver." One scientist calls it an "ice-cream-cone spiral," because in its most-advanced, most-appealing version, it looks like nothing so much as a cone of swirled soft-serve ice cream.