The Downside of The Green Thing

In November 2011 we were very proud of our Green intuitive. We didn’t get radical with it. We developed a practical plan that has already saved us money and it has given us a good feeling.

However, we discovered that there is a downside to the Green Thing!

#1. Politics: I don’t have a political bone in my body. But a few of my conservative friends say that we sold out and a few of our liberal friends say we didn’t do enough. I’m ok with that. “I am what I am” (Popeye) and “I will prove to be what I prove to be” (Bible), and what we did works for US! Upon further investigation, neither the conservative friends or liberal friends did anything; they just talked a good game, and after the haranguing back and forth, we still do what we do, and we’re still friends.

#2. Florescent Lights: I remember when I was young and in school, we moved to new classrooms that had florescent instead of incandescent lights. I could actual see the 60 cycle flashes as though they were strobe lights, and I could hear the never ending hum of the ballast. It gave me headaches from the time I entered school until I went home. Well, we have a programmer that can see the strobe effect and hear a high frequency squeal from the lights. It was so bad for him that he thought about quitting. His work area used spot lights, so we took the old incandescent lights that we had replaced with fluorescents, and install them in his work area. Valla, the headaches went away. But then he complained of the poor color rendition from incandescent lights. Since he was also responsible for graphics, we had to come up with something. We purchased LED lighting for his work area only. Now that was expensive. LED lighting is 2.5 times the cost of fluorescents. However, the LED lighting did several things for us.

A. The color rendition of LED lighting is at least as good as that of the florescent lighting.

B. No more complaints about strobe effect or high frequency squeal, no more headaches.

C. Because the rest of the office is still florescent, he stays in his work area longer and is more productive. He bugs the rest of us less so we are more productive too.

D. LED lighting is supposed to be 10 times more efficient and last twice as long as florescent lighting. So we may still realize a return on investment.

What is our plan going forward? Once the florescent spares are gone, we will begin to replace burned out fluorescents with LED lighting. In that way we can realize a return on our florescent upgrade, and continually improve the office environment without wasting money.