DURHAM, N.C. – A new, more energy-efficient McDonald’s is now open in the Saltbox Village shopping center in Cary, N.C. Featuring LED lighting from Durham-based Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), the new building is on-track to be the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified McDonald’s in the state.

The site’s original McDonald’s restaurant was demolished in early 2009 and rebuilt specifically to achieve LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Ric Richards, franchise owner/operator, hopes to be LEED-gold-certified by October. The store is lit 97 percent with LED lights, and when compared to the standard lighting packages, this store consumes 78-percent less electricity for lighting.

“My efforts in building this store are two-fold – to be economically sound with energy-efficient methods and, at the same time, to provide a modern space for the enjoyment of customers,” Richards explained. “Cree’s LED lighting products are an important element in our ability to reach our energy-efficiency targets.”

The Cary McDonald’s uses a fully automated, intelligent lighting-control system that combines light from high-efficiency Cree LED lighting and daylighting from Solatube skylights with a photo sensor to maintain the proper light levels on work surfaces. For example, if it rains and the daylighting is reduced, the LED light levels are increased to compensate. The dimming capability of LED lighting provides the flexibility needed for this system to work effectively. Cree’s LED products are featured throughout the restaurant, including dining areas, kitchen, hallways and restrooms, as well as the drive-thru and entryways.

“By seeking LEED-gold certification, this McDonald’s demonstrates the importance of LED lighting as a crucial component for green building,” said Neal Hunter, president, Cree LED Lighting. “The full line of Cree LED lights is in use in this building, from our recessed downlights to our new LED bulb. The benefits of energy-efficiency and high-quality lighting make Cree LEDs a cost-effective option for retailers and businesses.”

Other features of the green design include LED lights in the parking lot, front counters made of recycled glass and concrete, a parking lot that utilizes recycled concrete as well as re-use of the restaurant’s original ENERGY STAR-rated equipment. The building uses water conservation measures such as low-flow toilets and landscaping consisting of native and adaptive plants and trees requiring little or no irrigation, which Richards expects will allow the restaurant to save 550,000 gallons of water annually.

About Cree
Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and setting the stage to obsolete the incandescent light bulb through the use of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly LED lighting. Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting solutions, and semiconductor solutions for backlighting, wireless and power applications.

Cree’s product families include recessed LED down lights, blue and green LED chips, high-brightness LEDs, lighting-class power LEDs, power-switching devices and radio-frequency/wireless devices. Cree solutions are driving improvements in applications such as general illumination, electronic signs and signals, variable-speed motors, and wireless communications.

At a time when the outdoor advertising industry is looking to digital signage for growth while municipalities increasingly look at restricting digital signs, a new study indicates there is no correlation between digital signs and accident rates. A study by Tantala Associates, paid for by the industry-funded Foundation for Outdoor Advertising Research and Education, analyzed about 18,000 traffic accidents in the Rochester, N.Y., area over a five-year period. It found no correlation between traffic accidents and digital signage, with data actually showing a tiny decrease in accidents within a half-mile radius of digital billboards. Similar results were found two years ago in a study by Virginia Tech’s Center for Automotive Safety Research, which found that behavior patterns did not change substantially in the presence of digital signs. For more information, contact David Hickey.

View our LED Outdoor Sign Solutions

Article Source: <a href=”http://signs.org/IndustryNews/StudyConcludesThatDigitalSignageNotDangerous/tabid/708/Default.aspx”>Signs.org</a>

Feb 18th
Source: LEDsmagazine.com

The CITADEL program will develop measurement protocols and benchmarking analyses of LEDs, and methods to assess the aging and life expectancy of LED lighting products. The CITADEL program – an R&D initiative led by the CSTB (the French Center for Building Science and Technology), major French academic lighting laboratories and the French branch of Philips Lighting – has recently been formed to research and promote the optimal use of LEDs in buildings.

The program’s goal is to fully characterize LED lighting products, as they apply to the specific needs of buildings and tenants. The program hopes to define new measures of visual comfort and color rendering specific to LEDs, said Christophe Martinsons, head of the Lighting, Electricity and Electromagnetism Division of the CSTB.

Clinton Initiative's LED Streetlights

Feb 19th
Source: LEDsmagazine.com

Over a five-year period, the City of Los Angeles’ Bureau of Street Lighting will replace 140,000 existing streetlight fixtures in the city with LED units.

On February 16, former President Bill Clinton announced that the Outdoor Lighting Program of the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) is working with Los Angeles on the largest LED street lighting retrofit project ever undertaken by a city to date, said a report by the CCI.

Over a five-year period, the City of Los Angeles’ Bureau of Street Lighting will replace 140,000 existing streetlight fixtures in the city with LED units that not only will improve LA’s lighting quality and reduce its electricity use, but also will help the city to save money in the process.

While typical streetlight lamps will last from four to six years, LED fixtures have a longer life span, estimated from 10 to 12 years. The new, white-light LED streetlight units are more durable and damage-resistant than other technologies. This not only will reduce the frequency and cost to repair streetlight fixtures, but also will provide LA with considerable savings in labor and material.

The improved equipment life also means that fixtures will more reliably light streets and sidewalks for city residents. In addition, LA is committed to using LED fixtures that will ease what is known as sky glow – the artificial illumination of the night sky.

“If you have ever been to Death Valley National Park and looked up on a clear night, you would see that the stars seem to be dimmer than they were when I was a child. But they are not getting dimmer, really – the rest of the sky is getting brighter because of all the lights from Los Angeles and Las Vegas and other surrounding cities and communities,” President Clinton said. “Now, thanks to the work of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting, and my Foundation’s Climate Initiative, the stars over Death Valley may again shine more brightly.”

Once this overhaul is fully complete, LA will save electricity expended on street lighting in the city by a minimum of 40 percent and reduce carbon emissions by approximately 40,500 tons a year, which is the equivalent of taking 6,700 passenger vehicles off the road every year.

Over a seven-year period, the city will save a total of $48 million and reduce carbon emissions by 197,000 tons. After the loan is repaid in seven years, LA will continue to save $10 million annually as a direct result of this lighting retrofit project. In addition, this loan will have no adverse impact on the city, as the loan payments will be covered in full by savings from current energy and maintenance costs.

This LED retrofit project also will include the installation of remote monitoring units at all 140,000 streetlights replaced in the city. These devices will automatically report streetlight failures directly to the Bureau of Street Lighting for immediate repair, thus enabling its staff to optimize its maintenance services.

“If every city followed the example of Los Angeles and reduced the electricity used by their streetlights by 50 percent, it would be equivalent to eliminating over 2.5 of those coal plants per year,” President Clinton said. “We would do that while saving taxpayers money. And by doing that, we would also reclaim our night sky.”

CCI’s Outdoor Lighting Program works with partner cities to improve the energy efficiency of street and traffic light systems through a combination of technical, purchasing, and project assistance.

{07 Jan 2009
Source: http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/6/1/5}

Philips’ Luxeon LEDs help the newly-enlarged Times Square Ball save up to 20% more energy than last year’s ball.

On January 6, the massive LED-covered Times Square ball – used to ring in the 2009 New Year’s celebration in New York City – was lit again and sent back up its flagpole.

The 12-foot-dia. 12,000 pound ball will now have a permanent home on the roof of One Times Square and will be lit up in patterns to commemorate holidays and other events.

The Ball, which is twice its previous size, will incorporate more than three times as many Philips Luxeon LEDs as last year’s version and deliver a brighter and greener experience, the company says.

The ball now contains 32,256 Philips Luxeon LEDs, which are as much as 20% more energy-efficient than last year’s and consume about the same amount of energy per hour as it takes to operate just two conventional home ovens.

“While New Year’s Eve occurs only once a year, the LED technology on display in the Times Square Ball will soon evolve into a very real energy-efficient lighting alternative for consumers around the world, and will help drive a more bright and sustainable future for generations to come,” said Kaj den Daas, Chairman of Philips Lighting North America.

Philips also lit the Times Square mumerals (2-0-0-9) using its Halogena Energy Savers – a family of bright and long-lasting halogen bulbs which are 30-47% more energy-efficient than equivalent incandescent lamps, the company says.

Also contributing to the ball were Focus Lighting, which created a lighting design that utilizes over 3,500 lighting cues to orchestrate the colorful moving patterns of light, and Lighting Science Group, which designed, developed, and produced an integrated lighting system. The ball is covered by 2,668 triangular Waterford Crystals.

{By Josh Johnston
Wednesday, 28 May 2008 08:02
Source: Bits Limited}

How to Reuse those Batteries!!

88 percent of the total mercury and half of the total cadmium in the municipal solid waste stream comes from discarded batteries.

621.2 tons of household batteries were disposed of (not recycled) in 1989. That’s twice the amount thrown out in 1970, and was nearly doubled again in 1995.

Why is this important?

As consumers we are more conscientious than ever about manufacturing and production. If you’re here, reading this, you’re an informed consumer or are endeavoring to be so. You are looking for recycled materials in your purchases. You are using less electricity to minimize greenhouse emissions (and your utility bill). Based on statistical data, you have probably even put off buying that new SUV. Certainly, you know about metal poisoning, and why lead is no longer in paint, and have heard of mercury poisoning in fish.

What you may not know is how much toxic metals poisoning reported in the eighties was from batteries breaking down in landfills.
Landfills make old batteries more toxic. Since then, the EPA has addressed many of these issues, and companies have had to put mandatory controls in place to change the practices associated with polluting industries. All well and good. But, In the seventies and eighties, we saw a good number of reclamation facilities for recycling, but in recent years–where have they gone? Overseas, mostly Central and South America, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Wages are low and policing of safety, health, and environmental issues is spotty. Most reclamation is privatized, the exception being states where batteries constitute hazardous household waste. (In those states batteries go to landfills where they are handled a bit more safely.)

Incidentally, if you go to one of these landfill sites, you can get chemicals like paint thinners, butane, varnish, and the like for next to nothing. As long as you don’t mind digging through old product.

Lead-acid batteries destined for recycling are sold to other nations for processing and the second use materials are sold off by them, as the market for such materials is too poor for companies to turn a profit from the process on American soil.

So how do we address the issue?

One method is also a money-saving strategy: recharge them. Twenty years ago, rechargeable batteries were very expensive, compared to their non-rechargeable counterparts. Chargers were expensive and bulky, and charge life was inconsistent. Sales were poor. However, as uses of different heavy metals and chemical electrolytes became more advanced, rechargeable batteries became more practical and used more widely. Now we have power tools, cameras, cell phones, even battery powered cars that come with rechargeable batteries equipped. If you take simple steps with using correct charging/draining practices, it isn’t unreasonable to believe that you’ll dispose of the appliance before the battery life expires.

Batteries, even rechargeable ones, are a breed full of variety. Let’s look at different battery types and how they are handled for disposal.

Alkaline or manganese:

“Button” Style:

Carbon Zinc:

Lithium:

Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd):

Rechargeable Alkaline Manganese:

Lead Acid Vehicle batteries:

If you want to really get the most out of your battery life, you can even coordinate your appliances and use the same batteries for several appliances. A good example would be batteries from your wireless keyboard that are no longer strong enough to produce a reliable signal. Frequently, those same batteries will function just fine in a lower power device like your TV remote for several more months.

Conclusion

{By Josh Johnston
Wednesday, 28 May 2008 08:02
Source: Bits Limited}

{By Elizabeth Seward
New York, NY, USA | Fri Oct 03 06:00:00 EDT 2008
Source: PlantGreen.com}

[by Jacob Gordon From PlantDiscovery.com]

How to Green your electronics

Yes, electronic devices are becoming a bigger and bigger part of our lives, especially as they get smaller and smaller. We use them as tools and toys to communicate, work, enjoy media, and be expressive. Being green with electronics doesn’t mean living in a teepee listening to truckers squalk on the old short-wave. Greening your electronics is a matter of knowing what tech to get, how to use it best, and what to do with it when its useful life is done. Many of these best practices aren’t things you’ll read in the instruction manual, either. In this guide we’ll tell you how to stop wasted energy, what gizmos are greener than others, and what to do about e-waste and electronics recycling. We’ll also show you some of the newest green gadgets coming over the horizon.

1. Go rechargeable
   Of the 15 billion batteries produced and sold each year, most of them are disposable alkaline batteries, and only a fraction of those are recycled. Look for electronics that are rechargeable. For removable batteries, lithium-ion (Li-Ion) and nickel metal hydride (NiMH) are cost-effective, green alternatives. The fastest battery chargers can juice up AAs in as little as 15 minutes, and will pay for themselves quite quickly.
2. Kill Vampire Power
   Just because your cell phone is unplugged from the charger or your TV is off, doesn’t mean these devices aren’t drawing a current and running up your electricity bill. Many AC adapters (or “wall warts”) if left plugged in will continue to pull a current from the wall socket (you may notice they are warm to the touch). Many devices that have a standby mode do the same thing. To make sure you aren’t wasting energy, pull the plug on devices when not in use or put all of your electronics and chargers on a power strip. This way you can simply flip the power strip off when your electronics are not in use. There are also a number of “smart” power strips on the market that sense when electronics are turned off, or that turn off the strip when one main unit (like your PC) is powered down. (Note that some electronics need to be turned off via the on/off switch before cutting the power. Inkjet printers, for example, need to seal the cartridge heads to avoid clogging.)
3. Buy with energy in mind
   Some types of electronics suck more than others, at least in energy terms. Doing research on different technologies and their respective energy consumption can save you a lot in the long run. For example, if you want a flat panel television, look into LCD models, which use much less energy than plasmas. The Energy Star site will help you identify energy-saving electronic devices like cordless phones, stereo systems, TVs, DVD players, battery chargers, and a whole bunch more.
4. Treat those batteries right
   While battery recycling programs are increasingly common and easy to use, the process of recycling anything still takes energy and resources and should not be overused (one of the most polluted sites on the planet is a battery recycling plant in the Dominican Republic). Knowing how to best use and maintain rechargeable batteries will boost their longevity and performance. See Getting Techie below for more on the specifics.
5. Make it a short circuit
   So, you just bought the newest, sleekest cell phone. It takes video, filters out calls from exes, and charts barometric pressure. What should you do with the old one? Whatever you do, don’t just throw it in the trash–this risks releasing chemicals into the ecosystem. There are plenty of organizations and charities that recycle and reuse old electronics. If you want a return on your old gadgets, sell them on an online auction site–people will often buy them even if they are broken. Bonus! A growing number of computer manufacturers are adopting take-back programs as well, under which they will accept and recycle their units when you’re done with them.
6. Buy used
   Don’t want to spend a fortune on technology? You can find top quality, totally functional used electronics at sites like Ebay and Craigslist, and even at yard sales and flea markets. This not only cuts down on the amount of new resources being used for the production of more stuff, it also creates a market for sellers to safely recirculate electronics they’re no longer using. Ebay’s Easytradein.com is a good resource for the electronics you are ready to part with. You might even be surprised what comes up on Freecycle.
7. Bright idea: The solar charger
   There are an increasing number of options for on-the-go solar power. From handheld to backpack power, solar chargers now come in a spectrum of types for juicing up phones, PDAs, Bluetooth headsets, iPods, and laptops. Many have an onboard battery pack that can charge while the solar cells are in the sun, and then transfer the power to your device when you need it. See the “Home Electronics: From the Archives” section for a list of solar chargers on the market.
8. Extend use
   There’s definitely a cult around replacing our electronic toys and tools every 15 minutes or so when a new model comes out. In some cases, the newest technologies are cleaner and more efficient, but often, the older ones will faithfully do their assigned task for a lot longer than the marketplace would have us believe. In some cases, the older models are even superior. Step back a few paces from the whole technophelia thing and take stock of what your real needs are. It couldn’t hurt to practice some of this in the rest of our lives, as well.
9. Look for EPEAT
   EPEAT (electronic product environmental assessment tool) is an attempt at environmental certification for computers (CPUs, monitors, and notebooks). Released in early 2006, a growing number of products have been registered with EPEAT, and this certification is continuing to pick up steam; learn more at the EPEAT homepage.
10. Buy a less toxic system
    Europe is making huge inroads on reducing the presence of toxic chemicals in electronics such as lead, cadmium, and mercury with a directive called RoHS (Restriction on Hazardous Substances). Even if you don’t live in Europe this has a big impact, as any company looking to sell there has to follow the directive. Look for companies that are adhering to–and even going beyond–the RoHS compliance in Europe and around the globe. Learn more from the RoHS UK Homepage and Wikipedia’s RoHS page.

From Source: PlantGreen.com