Not only do we waste massive amounts of energy during the day, but phony excuses to keep the lights on at night add up to a whole lot of waste…and carbon.
The culprit’s: Big box stores like Wal-Mart, Target, etc…, CVS, the vast majority of offices (especially skyscrapers- you have the red blinking tower for planes, so don’t use that excuse), government buildings,
1. Businesses who leave the lights on overnight. The most commonly stated reason is to fight crime…but does it really fool anyone into thinking there are people in the store at 3 am? If the lighting is for security cameras, surely there are more energy efficient options to light the camera’s path. This is all too common, especially in cities. According to one blogger “In the United States alone, businesses lose $5-10 Billion dollars per year on lighting their buildings at night. And for what? So I can look inside and see the diploma from Harvard on the wall?” Maybe we can start a running list of companies who are keeping the lights on overnight. Next time you see it, report it to environmentaloutrage@gmail.com .
2. Parking Lots. Despite the fact that much crime does happen in large parking lots at night, it is unnecessary to keep gigantic flood lights on the whole lot. Especially a company like Wal-Mart who, I’m pretty sure, could pay $10/ hour to a watchman to monitor each lot.
Apparently some empty office spaces keep the lights on at night “to advertise”…I guess for that drunk stumbling through the city streets at 2 am that, no doubt, will stop to write down the number for your office space because they can see how beautiful the room is from 5 floors down!
The effect:
Excessive energy usage the increases your bills at the same time as it pollutes the environment.
We can’t see the stars at night!!! Light pollution is the main cause.
Some suggestions:
* Motion-Sensor Lighting- this will solve the “late-worker around the office” problem as well as turn the lights in case of crime.
* Companies could charge more for energy used between certain hours.
* Office buildings should pay for someone to go through each floor turning off lights after everyone has left to eliminate the “I’m leaving them on for someone” excuse.
* Get a good security system! The light and the camera don’t respond to crime, security systems trigger an actual response. Having just enough light for the camera is more than sufficient.
* Some cities, in protest of the waste, have held a blackout, where the whole city turns the lights off for 30 minutes or an hour.
* Next time you have an encounter with a store manager of any sort, ask if they turn out the lights at night.
Great article and discussion of the issue here. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/03/turn_off_the_li.php
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This Sat. at 8pm eastern standard time is Earth Hour- worldwide people and businesses are encouraged to turn off the lights and other non-essential appliances from 8pm to 9pm to raise awareness about global warming. The event is designed to demonstrate to politicians worldwide the need to enact policies to decrease CO2 emissions. More at www.earthhour.org.
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