IKEA: Only Selling LED Lights After 2016
2050 Magazine
Swedish home furnishing giant Ikea has taken the laudable decision to stop selling anything but energy-efficient LED light bulbs from 2016 onwards.
Not only will they stop selling other types of light bulbs but will also be practising what they preach by converting all their own stores to LED lights between now and 2016.
Ikea’s management are confident that their enormous buying power will mean that they will be able to sell LED lights at considerably lower prices than commonly seen on the market today.
“LED is a light revolution,” said the company’s Chief Sustainability Officer Steve Howard. “With household electricity bills continuing to rise rapidly and global energy consumption increasing, a small LED bulb can have a very big impact. It uses much less energy than a traditional bulb and brings a lot of home furnishing potential to the home. Building on our belief that everyone should be able to afford to live more sustainably at home, we will make sure our LED prices are the lowest on the market,” says Steve Howard, Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA Group.”
SO WHAT?
“Almost 20% of global electricity consumption comes from lighting, so shifting lighting to LED technology is a cost-effective way to get change at scale. IKEA converting its lighting range to LED will have a real impact in reducing energy use in many households.” (Samantha Smith, leader of the World Wildlife Fund Global Climate and Energy Initiative.)
LED bulbs consume 85% less energy than incandescent bulbs and can last up to 20 times longer. (That’s about 20 times longer than a typical incandescent, 10 times longer than a typical halogen and twice as long as a typical CFL.)
If one million people changed one bulb each into LED, this would in terms of CO2 emissions correspond to taking almost 6,700 cars off the road, or planting 17 million trees per year.
The total annual cost saving (including purchase price and energy consumption cost) of switching one incandescent 40W bulb to a corresponding LED bulb, is approximately $6.25 (5.3 Euro) on average.
LEDs can be used almost anywhere – in any room in the house or in any business. LED replacements are already available for many bulb types and can fit virtually all of your existing lamps.
Original Article on 2050 Magazine
