The power that businesses have in this movement

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The power that businesses have in this movement
By MarcoVisscher | Published: December 16, 2009

pharox-led60Agreements between countries “would never do enough,” California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said today at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen. Yes, these negotations are important, but Schwarzenegger rather puts his faith in people, not international laws. “I believe in the power of the iconoclast, the entrepreneur and the indivuals,” he said, adding scientists, capalists and activists to the list. After all, each great movement begins with people not governments, he says: the labor movement, women’s suffrage, civil rights, the Vietnam anti-war movement.

Schwarzenegger did not give many examples, but he could have refered to the makers of the Pharox, the LED bulb produced by Dutch technology firm Lemnis Lighting that uses at least 90 percent less energy than a 40-watt regular bulb, and lasts for more than 50,000 hours—that’s more than 30 years. Consider that 20 percent of the world’s energy bill is spent on lighting, and you don’t need to be a genius to realize how enormous the environmental and energy savings from LED bulbs could be.

No government rule urged these entrepreneurs to make such an efficient bulb; they just saw the opportunity for a huge market. Now, it requires other people—consumers—to pick up on this.

Ode wrote about the LED bulb in the special edition on climate solutions, which you can download for free here.