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For some time now, I’ve found myself talking about the future in meetings - how the next generation of solid state illumination will be brighter AND more efficient.

Imagine my relief then, when we tested the latest version of our Edge technology and found that the future had arrived.  We’ve designed around a new generation of LEDs and the performance is quite something; we measure an increase in light output of more than 50% compared to our previous Edge system.  There’s a small increase in power consumption of just over 10%, taking a 6 sheet (shelter size) display to a consumption of 65W.  In light efficiency terms, the lumens per watt output now exceeds fluorescent tubes.

So, today we proudly announce the next generation of Bright Green Edge - brighter, more efficient, cheaper to operate and sustainable.

And I promise not to talk about the future for at least 3 months!

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I’ve been eager to join the blogging fray and introduce myself, but have been waiting for just the right topic. These past few weeks of political conventions in the US have finally given me that opportunity to jump in.

But first let me quickly introduce myself – my name is Dan Kiely and I am Bright Green Technology’s COO and am based in our NY office. What attracted me to BGT was how the company made it easy, accessible and most importantly, economical to go green. Let’s be honest, we can’t all have windmills on our roofs – we need practical ways to help the environment and save ourselves a few pennies in the process.

Which brings me back to politics. There’s been a lot of debate about whether implementing green reforms causes job losses. Some would say if we add strict environmental controls to our factories, for example,  then companies will have to cut jobs to make up for the higher costs and will make us less competitive. But more and more people are starting to argue the opposite – that in fact going green can create jobs and even entire industries.

If governments help companies to develop these technologies then we can develop a green economy and live better, cleaner and greener than ever before. In future blogs I’ll take a look at how various governments, big and small, are helping their towns, cities and countries to go green as well as some policies that are making the green transition more difficult.

If you have an example of a government supported green technology initiative write us using our contact-us form and we’ll publish the latest and greatest.

But before I go did you know a Bright Green Technology backlit display produces  1,800 pounds less carbon compared to a fluorescent unit while saving more than $275 in energy costs each year? – that’s cool technology in action!

*Based on unit being lit for 12 hours per day and $0.15 per kWH

Tags: carbon, energy savings, government, green economy, politics
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Reading trade press, we’re struck by how little hard data is available on the financial impact of deploying LED solutions in place of fluorescent tubes.  This is something we need to put right - by answering the questions that our customers are regularly putting to us.

Energy and maintenance costs are reduced, but by how much?

Is there significant ROI?

What’s the breakeven point on the investment?

Is this an important financial decision or one to ignore?

We’ve put together a case study to help.  But first a caveat; all the data comes from our friends in the outdoor industry, from the leading multinational contractors and from our Bright Green experience around the world - so this is much more than a back of an envelope calculation but much less than a fully researched study and exact figures will vary with circumstances.

Here’s the scenario: a 6-sheet ’shelter size’ box, single-sided, 6 x 58W tubes, 24/7 operation, power at £0.12 per kWhr ($0.25).  We’ve assumed an annual ‘planned’ retube and 1 ‘unplanned’ visit in 5 years to replace a tube or failed ballast.  Sound familiar?

Replacing the tubes in a 1000 boxes with a Bright Green system has a dramatic financial impact:

• More than £1.8 m in operational savings in the first 5 years
• At least 70% energy saving (with a further £25,000 ($50,000) saved per 10% increase in energy cost)
• Maintenance costs are eliminated

These savings add up quickly, in fact in this example the payback time for the higher inital costs is just 12 months.

It’s important to note that these impressive operational savings take no account of the revenue benefits of installing an LED system and therefore understate the full financial impact. These benefits are threefold.

First, the sales upside from providing advertisers with higher quality displays, second, reduced rpitvchinebates from failed tubes and third, the green premium that comes from pitching a sustainable solution to clients, local authorities and site owners.  If each of these factors increased revenues by just 1% each over the lifetime of the system (less than our industry colleagues suggest), then the total financial impact of the decision increases to more than £3m and the breakeven period shrinks to just 7 months.

Do let us know your thoughts on this example - we’d be delighted to run your figures through our economic model and calculate savings for your illuminated displays.

It’s time to save money - dump the tubes!

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As vast herds of new customers land on our website in response to this morning’s Bright Green newsletter, I wanted to share some of the analytical data we’ve collected so far. It’s the first time we’ve use Google analytics for a site and I’m blown away by the richness of the data that’s generated. It’s also incredibly useful for tweaking the site based on what visitors actually do rather than what your web designer says they do.

The really interesting thing is the geographical location of site visitors and the pages that they look at - the national differences are startling. Most of the world heads straight to the product page and looks at the pictures - whereas visitors from the USA access the resources and read the technical stuff in depth. This mirrors our real world experience; our clients in the US really are committed to low energy use, recyclability and increased efficiency - whatever their politicians say - and they are voting with their feet.

I’m a believer in legislation to deal with climate change but it won’t work unless we all educate ourselves by reading some of the small print and, on this (very limited) evidence, America is leading the way.

Tags: clients, climate change, environmental legislation, USA, website
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Avoiding temptation to follow 99% of all bloggers and list my New Year resolutions, I’m taking unlikely inspiration for 2008 from ‘Evan Almighty’ - part of our family holiday viewing. In case you missed it, Morgan Freeman is God and commands the building of an ARK - which turns out to be an acronym for Acts of Random Kindness. Let’s twist this into AREK - Acts of Relevant Environmental Kindness.

AREKs are small things that go big when scaled. Good examples are standby buttons, motion sensors attached to lights, planting trees and (of course) replacing fluorescent tubes with LED systems.

Let’s pick this apart:

Acts - Act is a verb, it means taking action - not talking about it. This is important and many environmental good intentions fall at the first hurdle. Cost is often the problem - products (like ours!) that have a sound financial case are much easier to act on than those that cost more money.

Relevant - not random. We need concerted, scalable action from science, government and industry to develop the right technology and then implement it. Individual AREKS are important but government AREKS scale. Legislation is probably the only way to make this happen.

Environmental - not things that feel good, look good or win votes - tangible decisions that make an environmental impact.

Kindness - yes, we’re saving the world for our children!

I’ll leave you with an AREK from Bright Green Technology, using 6 sheet displays (e.g. bus shelters) as an example of sustainable advertising.

A typical outdoor backlit display puts over 2 tonnes of carbon into the air every year (more than an average household), retrofitting a Bright Green system would reduce this to less than 1/2 tonne. This may seem like a drop in the ocean but scale this by the number of these displays in the world (nobody knows the exact number but it’s a big one) and the saving is at least 35,000 tonnes of Carbon, every single day.

Is this possible? Action is - the technology is ready and actually saves money compared with fluorescent tube lightboxes. It’s Relevant and Environmental, the decision is in the hands of government, local authorities and multi-national companies so scaling won’t be an issue and positive decisions would make a big difference. And it’s Kind to all of us - including the shareholders.

You can find this developed further on our website.

Let’s do some AREKs!

Tags: environmental legislation, outdoor advertising, Sustainable Advertising
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Last week was NY week, the latest in our mission to turn the Big Apple green. Bright Green thinking has definitely taken hold - everybody is specifying energy saving and sustainable products. Our client, CBS is contributing by installing our Bright Green Edge low energy poster cases in the NY subway and reducing energy consumption by almost 90%. There are new pictures on our website.

One of many meetings was a session with the management of one of the major transport hubs. They confirmed that all new equipment was evaluated for energy use as a priority.

This is welcome and valuable but the end result is a slower acceleration of energy use rather than a reduction. To really make a difference, old equipment needs to be retrofitted - massive savings are hidden here. This is something we’ll focus on more in the future.

Last time in NY, I was introduced to Andrew Revkin - he’s a leading environmental journalist on the NY Times. His blog is ‘Dot Earth‘, currently featuring ‘the funny side of global warming’ - it’s deservedly the most viewed environmental blog in the USA - recommended.

Tags: CBS, Retrofitting, Sustainable Advertising
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Gordon Brown’s first environment speech as prime minister sets some tough targets for the UK.

The current target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 60% may not be enough according to the latest climate change statistics. We may need to cut emissions by as much as 80% by 2050.

By then, the economy is projected to be 2.5 times bigger than it is today, but we’ll need to reduce CO2 emissions to less than half the current levels — somewhere between 155m and 310m tonnes.

At Bright Green, we like to think we’re a part of what Brown calls the ‘fourth technological revolution’ needed to build a low carbon economy.

If every outdoor media contractor starting replacing fluorescent tube displays with a Bright Green solid-state LED system, we’d take a giant step as an industry to help make the low carbon future a reality.

Brown says it will mean facing up to ‘hard choices’ and ‘tough decisions’. But in this case, the Bright Green switch pays for itself and increases quality. The hard choices are no doubt inevitable for us all. But why not start with some of the easy ones?

Tags: carbon, Environmentalism, government
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Our name isn’t just descriptive.

It also refers to an approach to environmentalism that we feel strongly about.

In a way, technology got us into the global warming mess - technology is our best hope for getting out of it.

From wikipedia:

The term bright green, first coined in 2003 by writer Alex Steffen, refers to a subcategory of environmentalism, distinct from traditional forms^[1]. Bright green environmentalism aims for a society that relies on new technology and improved design to achieve gains in ecological sustainability without reducing (indeed, increasing) the potential for economic growth.^[2] Its proponents tend to be particularly enthusiastic about green energy, hybrid automobiles, efficient manufacturing systems and bio and nanotechnologies, are supportive of dense urban settlements. “One-planet living” is a frequently heard buzz-phrase.^[3][4]

Their ideas can be contrasted with what they consider traditional environmentalism: pessimistic, primitivist, unattractive, “dark green” ideas that depend on a reduction in human numbers or a relinquishment of technology to reduce its impact on the biosphere.

Others contrast “bright green” environmentalism with “lite green” environmentalism, which they characterize as superficial moves to buy or use products which claim to be environmentally preferable, but in fact offer limited sustainability benefits. Many environmentalists of all stripes use “light” or “lite” green to describe products or practices they believe are greenwashing.

Tags: Environmentalism
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