Lemnis Lighting's LED Revolution: A Key Partner in Offseting the FIFA 2010 World Cup Carbon Footprint

Strategic Insights -

Lemnis Lighting's South African subsidiary, Lemnis Lighting Africa, has been selected by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) to help offset the carbon emissions generated by the FIFA 2010 World Cup. The DEA's initiative, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), aims to reduce the tournament's carbon footprint through three major greening projects. Lemnis Lighting has joined forces with the Glowball against Global Warming Campaign and international sustainability entrepreneur Maurits Groen to launch the "LED's Kick Off" program, a large-scale retrofitting of inefficient lighting with LEDs in hotels, office buildings, households, streetlighting, and rural areas. As a result, a portion of the carbon credits generated will be donated to the DEA to offset the domestic carbon footprint of the World Cup 2010 event, estimated at 900,000 tons of CO2.

Key Takeaways:

  • The DEA's initiative to Green the FIFA World Cup includes three major greening projects: a UNEP program to offset the carbon emissions of eleven World Cup teams, renewable energy interventions in six World Cup host cities, and an awareness-raising drive on green tourism.
  • Lemnis Lighting's "LED's Kick Off" program is the first Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) program in the world using LED lighting, designed to achieve the goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
  • Through the generation of carbon credits, Lemnis Lighting offers attractive financial incentives to customers and institutions for implementing groundbreaking LED technology.
  • The project includes the distribution of "Glowball" soccer balls and an education program for up to 300,000 children in South Africa on "how to become a climate hero!" implemented by Food & Trees for Africa.
  • Lemnis Lighting's Pharox LED products, efficent street lights with revolutionary mesopic lighting technology, and off-grid Pharox Solar will be used for the program, offering electricity savings of up to 90% and reducing carbon emissions.
  • The "LED's Kick Off" program aims to retrofit 3 million sockets with Pharox 300 LED light bulbs, saving 240,000 MWh in electricity annually, equivalent to the annual energy output of a 60 MW coal-fired power plant.

Statistics:

  • Estimated carbon footprint of the FIFA 2010 World Cup: 900,000 tons of CO2
  • Number of sockets to be retrofitted with Pharox 300 LED light bulbs: 3 million
  • Annual electricity savings through the retrofitting program: 240,000 MWh
  • Equivalent annual energy output of a 60 MW coal-fired power plant: 240,000 MWh
  • Lifetime of Pharox LEDs: up to 25 years
  • Energy efficiency of Pharox LEDs: up to 90%

Sources:

  • Global Warming Focus editors
  • Staff and other reports
  • VerticalNews.com (2010)
  • Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA)
  • United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
  • Lemnis Lighting
  • Glowball against Global Warming Campaign
  • Food & Trees for Africa
  • National Postcode Loterij (NPL)