BALTIMORE—SavWatt USA, Inc. announced that it will sell LED T-8 fluorescent tube replacements. SavWatt’s 16 Watt , 4 foot, T-8 LED tube will replace a typical 40 watt fluorescent tube (includes ballast), providing immediate energy savings of 60 percent, which does not include savings for service and replacement costs. Based on an average energy cost of 15 cents per kilowatt, the tube will have a 24 month payback. SavWatt LED tubes consume low power. Power efficiency reaches 90 percent, with energy savings of 60 percent compared with traditional fluorescent tubes. Tubes contain no ultraviolet, infrared ray radiation, mercury or heat...

BOSTON—In the early stages of an $18 million renovation project, one that will see a complete guestroom and corridor redesign, the 38-story, 803-room Westin Copley Place in Boston is preparing to add to its long list of environmental achievements. In 2010 the property earned Green Key and Green Seal certification, an Energy Star rating, and significantly reduced its energy consumption, water consumption and waste sent to landfill. The hotel’s green team, which deserves much of the credit for the accomplishments, is led by Jeff Hanulec, director of engineering, an industry veteran constantly on the lookout for ways to improve operational...

SAN MARCOS, TEXAS—Philips Wide-Lite, a leading manufacturer of sustainable lighting products, unveils a new family of indoor and outdoor RGB LED floodlights that allows users to simply “paint” with light—thanks to four levels of dynamic color-mixing control. Designers seeking to better integrate lighting solutions with dynamic color mixing schemes now have the flexibility and diversity to do so, thanks to the innovative Color-Tune technology that TAG offers. Color-Tune allows the user to control everything directly at the fixture. Simply power up a TAG luminaire for the first time and 16 million color possibilities are available. Push the Color-Tune button to...

SMITHBURG, MD.—Noventri recently announced their latest digital signage product offering—packaged digital signage systems for menu boards that are used by hotels, convention centers, and restaurants. The Eco-Menu Board digital signage packages contain all the needed hardware and software for a complete digital signage application that is up and running quickly. The Eco-Menu Board package provides dynamic pricing and food item updates as well as FDA compliance. Both offer streamlined convenience for customers and staff. Each digital signage package is a simple ‘plug and play’ solution and includes: LCD Display, 32”, 42”, 52” or 55” options; a display mount; an Eco-Series...

MOONACHIE, N.J.—Designed to be used with a multitude of new and existing lighting fixtures with GU24 sockets, Bulbrite has added a line of dimmable GU24 compact fluorescents to its family of energy efficient CFLs. “The GU24 socket system was designed to replace the Edison socket and base, transforming standard lighting into energy efficient fixtures,” says Bulbrite president Cathy Choi. “With the industry’s surge to become more environmentally friendly, an ever-growing number of suppliers, distributors and specifiers are using lighting fixtures that feature GU24 sockets. To meet this growing demand, we have launched dimmable GU24 CFLs that offer an energy...

NEW YORK—Greening some of the bright lights of the Great White Way has translated to another kind of green—$13,200 in cash and more than $130,000 in annual savings in electricity costs—for the Crowne Plaza Times Square. The hotel is the first business to receive a rebate from Consolidated Edison (Con Edison), for an energy-saving initiative under the utility’s new Commercial and Industrial Energy Efficiency Program. The hotel received the rebate as a reward for replacing the 3,300 40-watt incandescent light bulbs of its 80 by 20 foot Crowne Plaza Times Square sign with 8-watt compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. The...

NEW YORK—Humanscale’s groundbreaking Element LED Task Light received a 2010 Green GOOD DESIGN Award. Among thousands of submissions from more than 46 countries, Element was selected as an outstanding example of green design. The Green GOOD DESIGN Awards are organized by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. Green GOOD DESIGN’s goal is “to emphasize the importance of sustainable design and to develop a public awareness program for the international general public about which companies are doing the best job in sustainable design for our environments,” said Ioannis...

TORONTO—A three-floor, 114-bed hostel in Toronto that will open within the next couple of weeks could very well be the most energy efficient lodging establishment in North America. Incorporating solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, geothermal and heat capture technologies, the “low carbon” hostel will produce 75 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a comparable building its size. The hostel’s name is the Planet Traveler and co-developer Tom Rand says the property is by far the best in class for hostels and was built to the standards of a boutique hotel. The cost for the energy-saving systems was $200,000, just 5 percent...

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Consumers searching for the latest hybrid can soon look beyond their local car dealership. Beginning in 2011, GE Lighting will bring hybrid technology to the lighting aisle in the form of a unique, new incandescent-shaped light bulb that combines the instant brightness of halogen technology with the energy efficiency and longer rated life of compact fluorescent (CFL) technology. The initial product launch will bring U.S. and Canadian consumers GE Reveal and GE Energy Smart Soft White varieties that offer significantly greater instant brightness than current covered CFLs, while preserving the energy efficiency and long life attributes that have elevated...

OREM, UTAH—ILLUMRA, a supplier of self-powered, battery-free, wireless lighting and HVAC controls, recently won the “Best Dimming or Control” award at The LED Show in Las Vegas. A panel of LED experts reviewed the dimmer. The constant voltage dimmer is available in a wireless or wired configuration that responds to hardwired or wireless battery-free controls to adjust the brightness of LED fixtures. “ILLUMRA is providing the LED community with game changing technology,” said James Highgate, lighting consultant and director of the LED Show. “We are impressed with the dimming capabilities in such a small package. We see the potential for...