Sprenzy Shopping Blog

Last week, a broad group of companies, government agencies and Yahoo! launched the 18Seconds movement. The environmental initiative is named for the average time it takes a person to change a standard light bulb to an ENERGY STAR labeled compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL).

Lawrence Bender, the producer of An Inconvenient Truth, stated in a Yahoo! press release…

“This movement is about empowering the individual – to say to every person in America that with one easy step, they can become part of a movement that will literally change the world. I believe the CFL is the Trojan horse into the minds of the American public. Once you get somebody who feels good about making a difference and at the same time saving money, you have them thinking about what else they can do.”

In conjunction with the 18Seconds movement, Yahoo! created a site, 18Seconds.org, which ranks states and cities based on the number of CFL bulbs purchased since the beginning of the year. From 18Seconds.org…

“A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) is a light bulb that uses less  energy than a standard bulb to provide the same amount of light. Those bearing the government’s ENERGY STAR label use 1/3 the energy of a traditional bulb, can last up to 10 times longer, and save $30 or more in energy costs over their lifetime. You can find ENERGY STAR CFLs most anywhere you currently shop for light bulbs.

What kind of difference can one CFL make? Consider this:  If every American swapped just ONE bulb for an ENERGY STAR labeled CFL, it would collectively save more than $8 billion in energy costs, prevent burning 30 billion pounds of coal, and remove 2 million cars worth of greenhouse gas emissions from our atmosphere. Just imagine the difference we could make if we replaced all of the lights we use most!”

18Seconds.org has additional information on why and how to switch to CFL bulbs and more importantly, how to recycle CFLs, which contain a small amount of mercury. On the site, you can also spread the word by creating a badge like the one shown above right.

Currently, San Francisco is only the 83rd ranked city in the number of CFL bulbs purchased. So I’m calling on my friends and neighbors in San Francisco to do our part and make the switch to CFLs. We can do better than 83! It’s a simple step to help save our environment and it only takes 18 seconds.