A ‘bright’ way to help save the atmosphere

Sun Life Foundation, Philips, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Ace Hardware launched last week a campaign that offers a discount to buyers of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in an Ace Hardware store.

Called Bright Light Campaign, the effort aims to replace up to 30,000 pieces of the cheaper but less environment-friendly incandescent bulbs with CFL.

The P15-discount targets households in the lower C, D and E who continue using the cheaper incandescent bulbs despite their huge contribution on the electric bills and their high carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

The discount is intended to let everyone experience the savings of switching to CFL to ensure repeat purchase. Ace Hardware will display information collaterals about the campaign and the CFL packages will also contain the logos of the participating groups to indicate that these are the units that bear P15 discounts.

Sun Life and Philips will fund the discount promo while Sun Life will donate to the WWF P10 for every CFL bulb purchased under the campaign or P200,000 whichever is higher to support its environmental advocacies.

The switch to one CFL can save the atmosphere an equivalent of 328 kilos of carbon dioxide (CO2) and with a hundred people switching 10 bulbs this means sparing the planet of 328,984 kilograms of harmful CO2 preserving 61.4 hectares of natural habitat, Sun Life Financial president/CEO Henry Joseph Herrera said.

Herrera said Sun Life Foundation chose to support the campaign because it acknowledges the importance of saving the environment and its sustainability while promoting financial security for its clients for the future.

He added that as early as the first quarter of 2007, Sun Life’s mother company in Toronto , Canada issued a directive to enjoin all company employees across continents to support its Earth Day challenge and to Go Green.

“Sun Life employees around the world heeded the call and substantially reduced their carbon emissions through the most common actions like washing clothes in cold water; adjusting the thermostat; unplugging a mobile phone charger and switching to CFLs. All these actions, though they seem mundane to us brought about a big difference in our lives. The result: 300,000 fewer pounds of carbon will be emitted into the atmosphere, or 133.5 fewer metric tons over a short period of time,” he added.

The goal of converting 30,000 bulbs to CFL will prevent the emission of 9.6 million kilograms of harmful CO2 equivalent to preserving 4,800 basketball courts worth of rainforests, he added citing WWF reports.

“We do not have difficulty convincing people from the A, B and upper C markets to switch as they are more conscious about savings in their electric bills and they could readily afford the cost of switching to CFLs,” said Rico Gonzales, CEO of Philips Philippines .

Gonzales said converting one 100-watt incandescent bulb to an 18-watt Philips CFL will give consumers 80 percent energy savings if used for 12 hours a day. This means consumers can save up to P5,000 for 1.5 years based on a P9.50 per kilowatt hour.

“If by the end of this campaign, 30,000 incandescent bulbs are converted to CFLs, imagine the savings we gain and what great contribution to the society if these are re-channelled to fund more important basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing,” Gonzales said.