South Orange News (South Orange, NJ): Local Volunteers Light Up South Orange
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If you came home and found a new light bulb on your door, chances are it wasn’t the light bulb fairy but a neighbor who put it there.
On Saturday December 6th, volunteers braved the cold to distribute free energy-efficient light bulbs to their fellow Villagers as part of the Project Porchlight initiative. Project Porchlight is a campaign funded by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) and New Jersey's Clean Energy Program to give out thousands of free ENERGY STAR® qualified, energy-efficient light bulbs throughout the state. The compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs distributed use 75% less electricity than old-fashioned incandescent bulbs. Every bulb changed saves up to $30 in electricity costs over its lifetime. This means that 225,000 bulbs changed in New Jersey will create about $6.8 million in energy savings over the life of the bulbs.
Project Porchlight depends upon local volunteers to get those potential energy savings into the hands of NJ residents. In South Orange, Project Porchlight joined forces with the Environmental Commission and the Energy Policy Committee to link up with volunteer Villagers. These volunteers were made up of local girl scouts, boy scouts, parents, students, and concerned citizens who did their part by giving out 605 bulbs in all. Over the lifetime of those 605 bulbs, 199.65 tons of CO2 will be removed from the atmosphere, or the equivalent of 34.485 cars removed from the road. And that is a bright idea for South Orange.
For more information on the Project Porchlight campaign, visit www.porchlight.org.
To volunteer, contact Quincéy Xavier in the Caldwell, NJ office at 973-226-5020 or q.xavier@porchlight.org
For information on how to dispose of CFL bulbs safely go to http://www.southorange.org/Environment/CFLDisposalFrameSet.html
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