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A new green frontier for local government: reducing carbon emissions from the backlit displays in your community
As global warming climbs the political agenda, local governments are getting serious about reducing carbon emissions.
But too many municipalities and state governments have overlooked an important source of greenhouse gas emissions: backlit display advertising in public spaces.
Currently, millions of backlit displays are ultimately under local government control – in train stations, bus stops and public buildings. Today, these displays are wasting far too much energy and generating far too many greenhouse gases – simply because local governments don’t know there’s a better way.
The trouble with fluorescents
Backlit displays have traditionally been illuminated by fluorescent tubes. Increasingly, this dependence on fluorescent lighting has become unsustainable:
- Fluorescent tubes waste energy. Patented in 1901, they are last century’s lighting technology. They convert only 7-10% of their energy into light. The rest is wasted as heat - which often needs to be removed by power hungry air conditioning
- They demand costly, regular maintenance. Tubes fail suddenly and unpredictably, forcing annual replacement - further waste and cost.
- They create hazardous waste. Fluorescent tubes are hazardous to manufacture and expensive to dispose of, with the risk of releasing mercury into the air, water and food chain.
- They lose efficiency if turned off and on. Forcing 24/7 use even if not required.
Until now, there has been little choice. Fluorescent tubes were the only option for the millions of backlit displays in public spaces.
A better way
Now there’s a new way to backlight advertising displays that costs less and reduces energy use by as much as 88%, dramatically reducing the carbon footprint of each and every display.
We call it Sustainable Backlighting™, from Bright Green Technology, and it’s changing the way local governments look at their display contracts.
Sustainable Backlighting™ uses a new generation of solid-state LED technology to drive down the cost, carbon footprint and maintenance burden associated with fluorescent tubes.
- Bright Green systems use one-eighth the energy of a traditional ‘tube box’.
- Bright Green systems last longer – typically 5 or more years before needing a fast, simple and safe LED replacement (with no hazardous waste to dispose of).
- Bright Green systems are zero maintenance, with no need for costly annual re-tubing and tube disposal.
By using less energy, lasting longer and requiring no maintenance, Bright Green systems don’t just reduce the carbon footprint of every display, they also pay for themselves.
Carbon footprint: Bright Green vs Tubes
A single, poster box puts 6-8 times more carbon into the atmosphere with fluorescents than with a Bright Green system (and incurs 6-8 times the energy costs), so over five years the needless carbon emissions really add up:
|
|
Fluorescent Tubes | Bright Green |
| One Year | ||
| Illumination | 6 x 58W tubes | 2 x EdgeSticks |
| Total power | 348W | 58W |
| Energy cost/year* | $610 | $102 |
| Carbon emission** | 3,053 lbs/year | 318 lbs/year |
| Five Years | ||
| Energy cost* | $3,050 | $510 |
| Carbon emission** | 15,265 lbs | 1,590 lbs |
* $0.20 per kW-hr
** @ 1 pound of carbon per kW-hr
Putting it into perspective:
- A single 6-sheet display using fluorescent tubes (x6), puts 3,048 pounds of carbon into the air every year.
- The equivalent Bright Green display only generates 318 pounds of carbon – saving 2,730 pounds of carbon, every year, per display. This is about the same as an average western household’s annual heating footprint (3,280 pounds) for each and every 6-sheet display in the world.
- Just replacing the world’s 6-sheet displays with Bright Green systems would save 30,000MW hours of energy every single day (not even including the larger billboards). That’s 30million pounds of CO2.
A green initiative that pays for itself
By using less energy, lasting longer and requiring no maintenance, Bright Green systems don’t just reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they also pay for themselves.
A single fluorescent tube box (with 6 tubes) costs $3,310 more over five years than the Bright Green equivalent:
| Five year savings | Fluorescent Tubes | Bright Green |
| Tube/ballast cost | $230 | – |
| Tube disposal | $60 | – |
| Labor (planned/unplanned) | $480 | – |
| Energy | $3,050 | $510 |
| Total | $3,820 | $510 |
Clearly, specifying Bright Green Technology for all display contracts is a win-win scenario for the local authority, the contractor and the planet.
A sustainable system for any site
There’s a Bright Green solution for every application, from 6-sheet bus shelter to backlit billboard. Two different systems are on offer:
- Bright Green EdgeTM - the super-thin, edge-lit system suitable for 6-sheets and smaller.
- Bright Green MatrixTM - the patented LED Suspended ArrayTM technology that is scalable and retrofittable.
Chosen by top contractors around the world
Bright Green solutions are in daily use by some of the industry’s most progressive contractors, including CBS Outdoor, Clear Channel and Titan Worldwide.
The systems are easy to install and can be retro-fitted into an existing box in about fifteen minutes.
About Bright Green Technology
Bright Green Technology is the technology and market leader in solid-state LED backlighting systems for the advertising and signage industries.
Bright Green develops and markets proprietary backlighting systems built on our own patent-protected technology.
Our mission is to dramatically improve the environmental performance and ROI of all backlit advertising and signage by replacing fluorescent tube boxes.
