A few years ago, “going green” was all the rage, if sometimes only in theory.

Businesses across the United States made a point to sell themselves on how eco-friendly they and their products were.

Sadly, though, many of these businesses only stated what became the status quo, and few of them actually practiced what they preached

These nefarious actions made those legitimate among us look bad in the eyes of consumers. But with so many advantages and benefits to being green, it’s simply inexcusable not to try.

What’s more, utility rebates and incentives provided by the US Energy Department make going green easy, even for those who never fully followed through with their actions previously.

Because, really, all that a business has to do for more information regarding rebates, is to frequent energy.gov/savings and click on their state from the drop down menu.

For example, the results for Arizona are vast and encompass a range of commercial energy saving opportunities.

In order to find qualifications and further information, all one has to do is filter by eligibility and savings. From there, they can research ways to be more eco-friendly while saving money at the same time.

Take solar energy, for example. Over the last 10 years, California has single-handedly turned a means to conserve into a way to save.

Further, global leaders in business have lent a helping hand in legitimizing green energy.

Wal-Mart, as was reported by Forbes recently, has become a green global giant, even if their business practices are perceived as a little less than savory at times.

From the article:

Wal-Mart has installed 105 megawatts of solar panels–enough to power about 20,000 houses–on the roofs of 327 stores and distribution centers (about 6% of all their locations). That’s enough to make Wal-Mart the single biggest commercial solar generator in the country. And it intends to double its number of arrays by 2020.

Wal-Mart, among many other business leaders in the US, is changing green energy.

So while 2017 is a transition year for “going green,” businesses nationwide can still bask in the imminent glow of changing the world and consuming less. Because, in the end, earning the savings is as easy as visiting a website.

Replacing your current lighting with LED lighting can be a great way to help your business go green. The benefits to going green are numerous. While LED lighting costs a little more than regular lighting, the money-saving benefits far out way the initial investment. Below we will discuss four benefits of making the change to LED lighting.

1. Money savings: LED bulbs are created to burn at a lower wattage, so making the switch will greatly reduce your power bill.

2. Recycle: with old lighting, there is a proper way that you must dispose of them, due to the way they are made. The LED lights are made to be recycled; this has a great impact on the environment.

3. Extended life: LED lights are created to burn more than double the time of a regular incandescent light. This allows for less replacement, and will save you time, and money.

4. Energy reduction: this benefit is two-fold. You not only save money on your power bill, but you are greatly impacting the environment by reducing the amount of energy your business is using.

Finally, the above listed benefits are just a few of the benefits of switching to LED lighting. Between making the environment better, and saving money, why not switch today. Continuing to use your old lighting is costing you more money, and greatly damaging the environment.

Business owners are always looking for ways to decrease overhead and expenses. After all, the lower the cost of doing business becomes the higher profits are at the end of the day. If you’re looking to save money, energy, and to help protect the environment by going green, then all you need to do is tilt your head back and look up.

How LED Lighting Cuts Your Costs

Light emitting diodes (usually just called LEDs) have gotten a lot of attention recently for how much energy they save. When compared to your average incandescent light bulb an LED light bulb uses roughly 80 percent less power. While that’s a big enough reason to switch to LED lights in your business, there are more benefits to be had. LED lights don’t put out heat the way traditional bulbs do, which means there’s no need to adjust your temperature control either. Lastly, these bulbs last for years longer than traditional light bulbs do, which makes them a solid, long-term investment.

Relumination Can Help

Choosing the best lighting system for your business and your pocket-book isn’t always as simple as screwing in a different light bulb. Sometimes you need to dig a little deeper and make bigger changes.

That’s where Relumination can help you.

Our trained professionals have been working with businesses to create savings for years. No matter what a business’s particular situation is, we can come up with a plan to decrease the power you’re using without sacrificing that warm, welcoming glow that keeps customers feeling good while they’re shopping.

Saving money and saving the environment often go hand in hand. If you’re looking for ways to reduce your carbon footprint and save money, LED lighting is the way to go. In fact, Delta Airlines recently announced they’re committed to upgrading their entire fleet to LED lighting over the next three years, in a move that’s estimated to save as much as $50,000 per plane, per year.

You don’t have to be an international air carrier to save money by switching to LED lighting, though. Check out these great ways LED lighting saves you money, all while yielding huge environmental benefits:

Save on utility bills with energy efficient lighting: LED lights are as much as 90% more efficient than conventional lighting. This means you’re looking at up to 90% savings on your utility bills.

Pay less for replacement bulbs and installation due to longer life: LED lights last as much as 5 times longer than conventional lighting. In addition, they have a small, compact profile and aren’t made with glass or toxic chemicals like mercury, making them extremely durable, and safe for use in tight spaces, food prep, or clean rooms.

Lower operating temperature puts less strain on your AC: Conventional lighting generates a lot of heat, as anyone who’s changed a light bulb will tell you. LED lights, on the other hand, due to their better energy efficiency, waste less than 10% of their energy as heat. Especially in hot climates, or in industrial applications, this lower operating temperature and brighter light results in much less work your HVAC system needs to do to maintain temperature, and translates to further savings on your energy bills.

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes as they’re called on your invoice, are small, energy-efficient lights that have been subtly changing illumination. Tougher, longer-lasting, and less expensive than traditional bulbs and lighting assemblies, LED lights are a definite part of a clean energy lighting solution.

Use Less, Get More

One of the main reasons that LED lights are being used as part of a green energy approach is their efficiency. They only use 2-17 watts of power according to this source, which means they use 1/3 to 1/30th the amount of power that other lighting displays need. LED lights create no excess heat, and the light they generate is bright and focused. Not only that but LED lights can last up to ten times as long as compact fluorescent lights do, and significantly longer than traditional incandescent lights. There’s no filament in an LED bulb either, which means they survive bouncing, sudden moves, and other situations that would completely break incandescent bulbs.

LEDs Are Recyclable Too

In addition to all of their other benefits LED bulbs can be recycled. Up to 95 percent of an LED is recyclable according to this source, and they contain almost no harmful materials. All you have to do is replace the old bulb with a new one, and then hand it over to be remade into something else. It really is that simple.

Will LEDs Make Clean Energy More Attainable?

Because LEDs use less energy and last longer than traditional bulbs (both of which are good for the environment and for the energy grid) they make it more feasible for renewable energy to fulfill a business’s lighting needs. Whether it’s solar panels on the roof or a wind mill in the parking lot the less power your lights require to shine brightly the easier it will be to generate that power locally rather than buying it from the power company.

Energy costs are a constant concern when it comes to a business’s overhead. You need to run the freezers, keep your heating going during the winter, and perhaps most noticeably keep your lights on. While there will always be a certain cost lots of businesses are cutting their costs and going green at the same time be re-evaluating their lighting systems.

A Brighter Future

While metal halide bulbs have bee the standard for years that standard is falling by the wayside thanks to new technologies. Light emitting diodes, typically abbreviated to LEDs, are becoming one of the most popular retrofits for businesses according to this source. Warehouses in particular have been embracing these longer-lasting, environmentally friendly lights because in the long run they’re just cheaper to use.

How much cheaper are they? A 300-watt high bay LED provides the equivalent of a 1000-watt metal halide high bay in terms of light. That 700 watts of difference can have a big impact on a business’s light bill as well as on the strain it would otherwise put on the local power grid. If you take a full-size warehouse or large-scale store then that 700 watts of savings per high bay can translate to a lot less power used, and a lot less money spent on overhead.

It’s Never Too Late To Go Green

Just because a business already has a lighting system installed doesn’t mean it’s too late to cut costs and save energy. Green lighting retrofits are becoming more and more common, particularly when the up-front costs of the retrofit are compared to the long-term costs of using inefficient lighting.

Clean energy, also known as green energy, is energy that can be extracted, generated, and/or consumed without any significant negative impact to the environment. Moving towards energy sustainability will require changes not only in the way energy is supplied, but in the way it is used.

In 2014, market data assembled by the U.S. Department of Energy shows that the historic shift to a cleaner, more domestic and more secure energy future is not some far-away goal. In fact, LED lighting, one of the four transformational technologies mentioned, has emerged as a powerful market competitor to traditional, inefficient incandescent bulbs. The DOE report states that a standard 60 watt incandescent light bulb can be replaced by a ~9 watt LED light that is 84% more efficient while emitting the same amount of light. And although LEDs cost more up front, they also last as much as 25 times longer.

Another beneficial energy source is solar power. The cost of solar energy is declining, and each year tens of thousands more Americans begin to reap the benefits of clean energy from the sun. Energy is now being generated right on the rooftops of their places of business. A recent report released by Environment Maryland mentions the fact that solar photovoltaics (PV) produce 96 percent less global warming pollution per unit of energy than coal-fired power plants over their entire life cycle, and 91 percent less global warming pollution than natural gas-fired power plants.

In addition to the jobs directly created in the renewable energy industry, growth in renewable energy industry creates positive economic “ripple” effects. For example, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, industries in the renewable energy supply chain will benefit, and unrelated local businesses will benefit from increased household and business incomes. In addition, costs of renewable energy have fallen dramatically in recent years, and continue to fall. This means that between solar photovoltaics and LED lighting, your business can save money and achieve greater customer satisfaction at the same time.

Regardless of whether an enterprise uses fluorescent, incandescent, sodium or metal halide lighting, or some combination thereof, a switch to LED lighting offers obvious benefits. Energy usage can be reduced as much as 90 percent in some applications. The long life of light-emitting diodes is so impressive that LEDs have given rise to the term “fit-and-forget.”

A transition to LED lighting is also one of the most effective sustainability steps that any business can undertake. The ratio of dollars invested to carbon reduced is often better with LED lighting than with most other efforts to reduce a company’s carbon footprint.

Improved LED Technology

Commercial LED lighting first emerged as a new way to illuminate surfaces not far from the lights themselves. Now, the development of the technology allows deployment at mounting heights that vastly expand the potential usage of LEDs. Large warehouses, parking lots, parking garages and other broad expanses can be now be effectively illuminated with energy-saving LEDs.

Now that the functionality of LEDs has expanded, those that have facilities with long operating hours stand to benefit the most from both lower costs and a reduced carbon footprint. Interestingly, the potential for reducing one’s carbon footprint via LED lighting is still improving as production costs drop as performance improves. Still, many organizations have delayed in fully examining the potential of the latest LED technologies.

The Pace of LED Deployment

The Carbon Trust is a global organization that assists businesses, the public sector and governments to improve the pace at which they adopt sustainable energy practices that lower carbon emission. Over 150 experts operate out of far-flung offices in the United States, China, the UK, South America and South Africa.

James Dunlop, the Technology Manager at the organization, has weighed in on the question of why the adoption of LED lighting has not been even more rapid-paced. Dunlop suggests that inertia surrounds some lighting systems that are adequately functioning, even at the expense of excessive energy consumption. On occasion, some end users across the vast expanse of the business community lack the technical expertise to fully understand the potential benefits.

Once such an end user has started a partnership with a supplier that does possess the expertise, lighting solutions can be explained and subsequently deployed.

When Greenhouse Growers compiled the results of their 2013 State of the Industry report, it wasn’t surprising that of the 300 grower retailers, wholesalers, and young plant growers based in the U.S. and Canada, increasing energy costs was cited as the second biggest overall worry, with small growers expressing the most concern.

Consumers are demanding any kind of produce they want, at any time of year they want it, and at affordable prices. More people than ever are spending leisure time outdoors- connecting with nature, and are dissatisfied with just laying some sod and planting a few petunias. They want hops to brew their own beer, pollen rich plants that attract bees, succulents that amaze, and native plants that complement their current landscapes.

How to satisfy all this new demand while keeping costs down? According to a Purdue University study, by using better lighting efficiency methods, such as LED instead of high pressure sodium (HPS) lights, growers could get the same yields of fruit off tomato plants using just 25% of the energy. While only 30% of the energy going into an HPS light actually gets converted into usable light, up to 50% of the energy going into an LED light gets used, and can be optimized for different wave lengths that optimize plant growth.

The study also found that each plant grown using HPS light used 1224 kilowatt hours of energy during a season; compared to just 294 kilowatt hours for LED lighting. The incredible savings on an electric bill aren’t the only benefit. Growers can avoid local power caps during high-use times or because of inclement weather, provide uniform distribution of light, encourage flowering, and maximize crop cycles during long winters or in cloudy northern areas of the world.

Many greenhouse growers have been reluctant to invest in LED lighting because of the perceived high initial cost, but according to Green Tech Media, costs are falling and the payoff time is often less than 3 years. LED lighting is the future of greenhouse lighting!