Germany Embraces LED Lighting for Carbon Credits

LEDs Integrated in European Energy Efficiency Program

Major German Utility Company Promotes Energy-Efficient, CO2 Offset-Certified Lamina LEDs to Consumers and Businesses as Replacements for Traditional Lighting Products

Lamina Lighting Incorporated (Lamina), an innovator of LED lighting systems and technologies, today announced that the company’s LED lamps will be utilized in an energy efficiency initiative launched by RWE Rhein-Ruhr, the major regional energy company of the RWE Group. RWE ranks among Europe’s leading integrated electricity and gas companies and is one of the largest electricity producers in Germany.

The program represents an effort by RWE Rhein-Ruhr to help commercial and residential customers conserve energy and reduce utility bills by replacing their current light sources with Lamina’s SōL™ MR16 LED product, the only LED in the world which carries a CO2 offset certification.

“We are very proud that our SōL MR16 LED has been chosen to play a relevant part in the RWE energy efficiency program in Germany,” said Frank M. Shinneman, President and CEO of Lamina. “Working together with RWE Rhein-Ruhr and our partner-distributor Richard Schahl GmbH in Germany, we are happy to help more people become familiar with Lamina’s unique product innovations and efficiencies, and how their use can have a positive effect on the environment in the long run.”

RWE is based in Essen, Germany, and through its various regional energy companies and subsidiaries supplies 20 million electricity customers and 10 million gas customers throughout Europe. The LED initiative involves public announcements in the company’s 38 showrooms across Germany, and the distribution of almost 3 million newsletters. The newsletters explain to residential customers the positive aspects of using LED replacements; 56,000 industrial customers will also receive special brochures. Plans are underway for RWE Rhein-Ruhr to work in partnership with Richard Schahl GmbH, the European distributor of Lamina products, to train RWE-certified electricians on the correct and professional installation of the Lamina LED lamps into businesses such as hotels and retail shops, as well as inform them about potential costs and energy savings. All major electrical wholesalers will carry stock for Lamina’s SōL MR16 throughout Germany.

Lamina’s SōL MR16 LED product uses less than 8 watts of energy and produces the same amount of light, for a much longer period of time, than a 20 watt halogen light bulb. Lamina labels its SōL product with a “green tag” which highlights the bulb’s energy consumption as compared to its equivalent in the form of carbon credits offset. For the SōL this amounts to approximately ½ of a carbon credit (a carbon credit is equal to the emission of one metric ton of carbon dioxide). SōL’s CO2 offset was certified by an independent third party: The Carbon Credit Company LLC – the U.S. subsidiary of Frankfurt-based 3C Group. Among other services, 3C helps companies like Lamina – and their customers – achieve “climate neutrality” with their products and operations. The concept of carbon neutrality dictates that organizations and/or individuals make a commitment to the option of compensating for unavoidable emissions by reducing or avoiding emissions elsewhere.

Certification of the SōL is just one aspect of Lamina’s Carbon Footprint Reduction Program™, a comprehensive, company-wide environmental initiative. Along with a growing list of partners, Lamina supports a web site, truthinlighting.org that provides a wealth of information about how companies and individuals can work toward achieving carbon neutrality. Interactive forums, blogs, and RSS feeds will establish the site as a source for concrete factual information in regard to lighting and energy consumption.

Lamina is also undertaking a plan that includes a carbon footprint reduction of its own with a goal of corporate carbon neutrality, also to be facilitated by 3C Group.