Nature's Lighting Distribution P.O. Box 403 Monkton, MD 21111 Phone 410-239-3000  Fax 410-374-1624 Defining the Daylighting Revolution.......
	The "Green" Incentive Daylighting can significantly cut energy use for lighting buildings, often up to 80% reduction. But that's only half the story... ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Energy Savings With energy rates at an all time high and approximately 86% of electricity in traditional buildings attributed to lights, fans, and cooling, daylighting just makes good sense. Tax Incentives Tax incentives and subsides are increasingly becoming available from local utilities and governments for implementation of daylighting systems. In some states, new laws are being passed requiring buildings to use daylighting. In California, Title 24 requires buildings of 25,000sq ft. or more with a minimum 15 ft. of building height to light at least 50% of their floor space with daylighting. Utilities Utilities are designing new rates to reflect this change. One California utility recently threatened to triple peak usage rates (interestingly these rates are imposed during the middle of the day when it is the easiest to take advantage of daylighting). Such actions are helping to catapult daylighting to a higher level of acceptance and clearly improve its return on investment. Environmental Responsibility and Preservation Lighting accounts for 30-35% of electricity use in the commercial sector and 10% in the industrial sector in the United States. However, it is estimated that almost half of all commercial lighting is potentially wasted, which translates environmentally to over 700 million barrels of unnecessary oil use per year in the US alone. Read about Natural Capitalism to learn more. 68% of U.S. electricity comes from either coal-fired or petroleum based generating plants. Ciralight is proud to be part of a solution that reduces greenhouse gases and slows fossil fuel depletion by reducing the need for electric consumption of lighting and cooling. How much of a difference can daylighting make? At just one of its stores, Wal-Mart helped cut an estimated 618,200 pounds of atmosphere-warming carbon dioxide, 1,793 pounds of nitrogen oxides and 1,076 pounds of sulfur dioxide from being produced by electric generating stations annually. Wall Street is taking notice of the Green trend as well. According to a recent Fortune magazine article on cnnmoney.com, "In addition to chasing investment opportunities in areas like renewable energy, alternative fuels and carbon trading, investment banks are slowly "greening up" their own facilities with energy-saving systems." The article also notes that, "Going green also has PR value, and helps a firm's recruitment efforts, but its more than a marketing tool: Based on a recent analysis by the U.S. Green Business Council, the aggregate total return of publicly held companies affiliated with the USGBC outperformed the Dow by over 18 percent from 2000 to 2004."