Source:
Lighten Up
The best green ideas are ones that save you money, right away, without any kind of government subsidy or legislation. And there’s no better example of that than LED lighting. Sure, LED bulbs cost more than traditional ones. But they also save tons of money on electricity by sipping less juice to make the same amount of light. “If you spend $100,000 to retrofit a parking garage with LED lights, I can save you $100,000 a year on electricity,” says Charles Szoradi, CEO of LED Savings Solutions, in Devon, Pa. What’s more, those LED bulbs will last up to 10 years, so that $100,000 initial investment could deliver $1 million in gross savings. No wonder big companies are jumping on the LED bandwagon, among them Wal-Mart, which announced plans to put LED lights in 650 stores. That deal and others like it are fueling a boom for Durham, N.C.–based Cree Inc., which makes the semiconductors used in LED lights, as well as some LED bulbs of its own. After several years of modest growth, Cree’s revenues have exploded. Sales in the 2010 fiscal year, which ended in June, grew 53 percent to $867 million, and analysts expect sales to hit $1.2 billion in the current year. With numbers like that, no one can deny that environmentalism is a bright idea. — Daniel Lyons
