CFLs: Making the big switch

In an enlightened move to promote environmental sustainability, SM Prime Holdings, the country’s largest mall developer and operator, is extending its “Switch na sa CFL!” program up to April 30.

SM Prime Holdings has partnered with the Department of Energy (DOE) in this program that aims to help Filipinos reduce their carbon footprint by allowing them to exchange their old light bulbs for compact fluorescent lights (CFLs).

Switching to CFLs is a bright idea. An eco-friendly alternative to regular incandescent light bulbs, CFLs use 80 percent less energy and burn up to 10,000 hours times longer than incandescent light bulbs. They’re not called energy-saving lights for nothing. Thus, even if they’re more expensive, they’re cheaper in the long run. Did you know that a 22-watt CFL has the same light output as a 100-watt incandescent?

GE Consumer and Industrial Lighting sheds light on just why fluorescent light bulbs (including compact fluorescents) are more energy-efficient than regular bulbs: It’s because of the different method they use to produce light. Regular bulbs (or incandescent bulbs) create light by heating a filament inside the bulb; this heat makes the filament white-hot, producing the light that we see. A lot of the energy used to create the heat that lights an incandescent bulb is wasted. On the other hand, a fluorescent bulb contains a gas that produces invisible ultraviolet light (UV) when the gas is excited by electricity. The UV light hits the white coating inside the fluorescent bulb and the coating changes it into light we can see. Because fluorescent bulbs don’t use heat to create light, they are far more energy-efficient than regular incandescent bulbs.

If only a million homes would replace even just one light bulb each with a CFL bulb, pollution would be reduced — why, it’s like removing 700,000 cars from the road!

In just the first two months of SM’s CFL program, more than 500,000 incandescent bulbs were exchanged for CFLs by customers at SM Supermalls nationwide.

Says Hans T. Sy, president of SM Prime Holdings, “When it comes to helping the environment, every little thing counts. Even something as small as changing your light bulb can actually have big consequences for Mother Earth. SM hopes that by extending the period of our CFL program, we can give more of our customers the opportunity to make the switch to a more eco-friendly lifestyle.”

If you haven’t yet made the big switch, you can bring your electricity bill and incandescent light bulb, and present both to the DOE representative at the CFL exchange booth in SM Supermalls nationwide.

Since 1992, SM Prime Holdings and SM Supermalls have zeroed in on programs to manage the consumption of power and energy, water and solid materials in all its malls, now counting 37 nationwide. And to further raise the green consciousness of the public and keep everyone’s feet firmly planted on the ground, they’re holding a powerhouse lineup of green events that encourage eco-friendly living.

The “Switch na sa CFL” will be capped by the third staging of the Leadership Conference Series featuring former US Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Al Gore on June 8. To be held at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia, Part 3 of the Leadership Conference Series will have Gore presenting an Asian version of An Inconvenient Truth, the thought-provoking multi-media presentation on the threat of climate change and solutions to global warming and the subject of the movie of the same title, which has won critical and box-office acclaim.

Fresh off the press is Al Gore’s Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, which brings together the most effective available measures that will help solve the climate crisis.

Oh yes, tickets to the Leadership Conference Series will be available soon through TicketNet. For more information, call TicketNet at 911-5555 or e-mail algore-in-manila@smprime.com.

* * *

The long and short of getting shortchanged

A concerned reader shares her two cents worth on the issue of shortchanging.

Dear Consumerline,

I read your April 6 column where a concerned citizen wrote about “getting shortchanged.” I know all of us have had the same experience in groceries, drugstores, etc. I find it really frustrating because it is totally unfair when the rich owners of these stores get richer from the collective amount of the small change that they don’t give out, and they don’t declare this in their income tax returns. The cynic in me thinks that cashiers are in cahoots with store owners and get commission from the amount of loose change the store gets. Isn’t it just proper that cashiers inform you and apologize when they are unable to give you the exact change? Instead, they just assume (or pretend?) that you don’t need the small change and automatically won’t give you the exact amount. 

I really hate it when this happens so what I do is to be ready with my coins (especially the five and ten-centavo ones) everytime I pay. And before the cashier even gets the chance to give me the change for the rounded-off amount I have to pay, I tell her that I have such and such amount in centavos. That way, I will always get the exact change.

I also got shortchanged when I used to ride the tricycle. The fare starts at P7.50 and increases by P1 depending on the distance.  I just made sure that I always have a couple of 25-centavo coins in my coin purse so I won’t have to worry about getting the incorrect change. Otherwise, most of the drivers won’t give out the 50 centavos as change.

However, it is quite difficult these days to get hold of 5-, 10-, and 25- centavo coins nowadays. What I do is to count the contents of my mom and dad’s Pondo ng Pinoy bottle and pay them the amount (in bills, of course). People should use these coins to pay for their purchase so that there would be a lot in circulation and nobody would have an excuse not to give us the exact change. 

— DIANNE

* * *

We’d love to hear from you. E-mail us at ching_alano@yahoo.com.