Buckles Brightens San Francisco

Last year Buckles-Smith received an order from the City and County of San Francisco’s Environmental Department for 100,000 LED light bulbs.  

Buckles was recruited by San Francisco to beat a challenge. PG&E offered a test, called “Step up and Power Down”, to San Francisco. The goal was to purchase, deliver, and install LED light bulbs for 600 local businesses within a finite amount of time. PG&E awarded San Francisco $280,000 in funding to complete the task. San Francisco’s Environmental Department worked closely with Buckles, namely Kyle Devlin and Peter Fenyes. With their help San Francisco was able to purchase 100,000 light bulbs for the PG&E challenge. The distribution of the light bulbs became a San Francisco initiative, called the “Going LED” campaign. “Going LED” gave away thousands of light bulbs:

• 20,000 light bulbs to SF public libraries. Anyone with library card could pick up 4-packs of bulbs for free.
• 20,000 light bulbs for SF Unified School District to distribute to students, with a curriculum and homework assignment to explain the installation process and benefits of LEDs.
• 60,000 light bulbs for low-income, formerly homeless, veterans, or disadvantaged.

The SF “Going LED” initiative is designed to promote energy-efficient behaviors and enhance the lives of thousands. This effort was accomplished through the combined efforts of San Francisco, Buckles-Smith, and MaxLite.  Debbie Raphael, Director of the Department of the SF Environment said, “Buckles-Smith is an important partner. Not only did we ask them, ‘Can you please bring the price down, we also said can you please redesign the box, and then can you put our images on the box because we want people to understand what to do with the lightbulbs,’ and they said yes, yes, and yes. They are amazing partners and we are so grateful for them.”

The initiative will have long-term benefits. When all 100,000 LED bulbs are installed more than $1 million in utility costs will be saved each year. An additional 5.5 million kilowatt of hours of electricity will also be saved, which is enough to power 3,000 homes per year.

Interested in reading more?

• City of San Francisco: Going LED! https://sfenvironment.org/led-lights
  Twitter Feed: https://twitter.com/SFEnvironment
• SF giving away 100,000 long-lasting LED bulbs, mostly to disadvantaged https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-giving-away-100-000-long-lasting-LED-bulbs-12823187.php#photo-15370801