Sustainability

"Sustainability is the aspiration to ensure that meeting the needs of the present does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

The business world is awakening to an inevitable reality: our global economy, society and environment are inextricably linked.

Savvy companies know that the ability to manage energy, water and carbon emissions has a positive impact on the bottom line. Using natural resources efficiently reduces costs associated with energy and water consumption, waste generation and carbon regulatory compliance. It also helps minimize the risk of fines and penalties, operational disruptions and negative impacts to company image.

GreenLight Ventures powers the sustainability efforts of smart businesses by offering energy saving eHID lighting solutions.

Save 300 Million tons of CO₂ per year

We at GreenLight Ventures believe that reduction in power consumption is the first line of defense against CO₂ emissions and global warming.

GreenLight Ventures has a goal to save 300 Million tons of CO₂ per year. This is roughly equivalent to 10% of the emissions from the world's passenger vehicles, 1 billion barrels of oil per year or 300 medium sized power stations at 2TWh/yr.

Why 300 Million tons of CO₂ per year?

We know that lighting consumes 22% of the total power generation in the industrial world producing 2.2 Billion Tons of CO₂ annually. HID Lighting accounts for 26% of that amount or approximately 600 Million Tons of CO₂ annually. We also know that dimmable electronic ballasts reduce power consumption by more than 50% for the same amount of light output over the traditional technologies and extend lamp life significantly. Thus our goal is to cut power consumption of all HID lighting by 50% or 300 Million tons of CO₂.

To that end GreenLight Ventures will keep track of CO₂ reduction by each project we deploy and report back a total on our web site.

Definitions and assumptions

"A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide" A carbon footprint is normally expressed as a CO₂ equivalent (usually in kilograms or tonnes). - See Wikipedia "Carbon Footprint"

GHG: Greenhouse gases are gases that contribute to global warming

The amount of CO₂ generated for electric power depends on fuel source. For example, electricity derived from natural gas has a GHG intensity of 0.431 kg CO₂/kWh, and electricity derived from coal has a GHG intensity of 1.073 kg CO₂/kWh. In the US, 48.2% of the electric power was generated by coal-fired plants and 21.7% was generated by natural-gas fired plants; the number varies by country. The most current GHG data shows that intensity in the UK is 0.52 kg CO₂/kWh (http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/resource/conversion_factors/) while North America is 0.7 kg/kWh (EPA 2006).