The Times Square Ball lit by Philips’s LED technology turns green in support of Climate Week NYC

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), the global leader in lighting, today, in partnership with The Climate Group, called on every single city and utility around the world to schedule the switch of their street lighting to LED by 2025. During the annual Climate Week NYC proceedings in New York, Philips supported the launch of The Climate Group’s new major global campaign – “LED = Lower Emissions Delivered” – to encourage local governments, cities and utilities to embrace the carbon and cost benefits of switching to LED.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150924005179/en/

The Times Square Ball lit by Philips's LED technology turns green in support of Climate Week NYC. (Photo: Business Wire)

“Climate Week NYC is an important milestone on the road to COP21 in Paris later this year, where world leaders will be urged to act faster and more decisively in combating climate change,” said Eric Rondolat, Chief Executive Officer, Philips Lighting. “The demand for energy is increasing twice as fast as the annual rate of improvement in energy efficiency, so more ambitious targets are needed. For instance, simply switching conventional street lighting to LED provides an energy saving of around 40-50 percent. If you add connected lighting technologies, such as sensors and software control systems, you save an additional 30 percent while giving the community better lit, safer streets. So we definitely can meet more ambitious targets while at the same time improving quality of life.”

A new report, “Support The Big Switch,” published today, reveals that major cities around the world want to upgrade to LED. It states that while the technological barriers for switching to LED have been overcome, cities want more support from Government and financial institutions to refine business models and financing options to help make the switch.

In 2013, the city of Los Angeles began the installation of 140,000 LED street lights and has already reported energy savings of 63% and cost savings around $8.7 million in 2014. Today, with the help of Philips, Los Angeles is the first major city globally to renovate its LED lighting to ‘Connected lighting,’ using a system that uses mobile and cloud-based technologies. The new system delivers information so that cities can respond quickly to different situations, make smarter decisions and realize new operational efficiencies. And through connected LED lighting, the city has the potential to realize energy savings of up to 80%.

“There is no longer any reason why the big switch to LED street lighting shouldn’t start today, accelerating adoption in the US and around the world,” said Mark Kenber, CEO of The Climate Group. “Our global trials and stakeholder consultations have shown that, when it comes to tackling climate change, LEDs are the lowest of the low hanging fruit and easiest to implement. It’s technically proven, commercially viable, and already resulting in major savings for cities around the world. With the number of street lights around the world likely to hit 350 million by 2025, local governments, utilities and financial institutions need to work together to ensure that all new and existing street lights are LED – or of equivalent energy efficiency – by 2025.”

As a symbol of this collaboration and commitment and as a visible call to action for cities around the globe, the iconic Times Square Ball, lit by 32,256 Philips Luxeon LEDs, has been programmed to display ongoing variations of the color green interspersed with images of a spinning planet Earth throughout all of Climate Week NYC.

Notes to editors

About the “Support the Switch” report: Findings in the report are the result of a two-year consultation by The Climate Group with cities, following The Climate Group’s global LED street-lighting trials in 12 major cities including New York, London, Kolkata and Sydney. The consultations were conducted in cooperation with Philips Lighting.

About Royal Philips:

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through meaningful innovation in the areas of Healthcare, Consumer Lifestyle and Lighting. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips posted 2014 sales of EUR 21.4 billion and employs approximately 106,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. The company is a leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as male shaving and grooming and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.

About Climate Week NYC

Climate Week NYC is a key event in the international calendar that brings together leading governments, investors, businesses, innovators and opinion formers. The Climate Group launched Climate Week NYC in 2009, and has acted as the secretariat since its inception. Host to more than 100 affiliate events from September 21-28, Climate Week NYC 2015 is the collaborative space for climate events in support of the UN Summit to adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The Climate Group is also hosting a Climate Week ‘countdown’ from September 1 until the opening of the week; during which a series of announcements, report launches and major commitments from business and sub-national leaders will be made.

Climate Week NYC 2015 is supported by the We Mean Business coalition members: BSR, The B Team, CDP, Ceres, The Climate Group, The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group and WBCSD.

ClimateWeekNYC.org | @ClimateWeekNYC | #CWNYC

About The Climate Group

The Climate Group is an award-winning, international non-profit. Our goal is a prosperous, low carbon future. We believe this will be achieved through a ‘clean revolution’: the rapid scale-up of low carbon energy and technology. We work with corporate and government partners to develop climate finance mechanisms, business models which promote innovation, and supportive policy frameworks. We convene leaders, share hard evidence of successful low carbon growth, and pilot practical solutions which can be replicated worldwide.

Since 2009, The Climate Group has been the convenor of Climate Week NYC. In September 2014, Climate Week NYC hosted 150 events as the collaborative space in support of the UN Climate Summit.

Theclimategroup.org | @ClimateGroup | #CleanRevolution

Philips LightingMelissa Kanter, 732-563-3994melissa.kanter@philips.com

Koninklijke Philips NV (NYSE:PHG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024 Click Here for more Koninklijke Philips NV Charts.
Koninklijke Philips NV (NYSE:PHG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024 Click Here for more Koninklijke Philips NV Charts.