Get out and buy a lightbulb (CFL, that is)
FastCompany magazine recently had an article describing an initiative by Wal*Mart and GE to get every one of the retailer's 100 million regular customers to purchase a compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL). According to the article, the environmental impact of such an effort would be massive:
"the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads. "
While I am by no means an environmental activist, and I am relying on the data supplied in this article to be factually correct, the impact of this seemingly small effort is staggering. It also highlights the incredible impact a large base of users can have on the world at large (think: MySpace's 100 million, Yahoo's 500 million, etc.).
In this particular effort, Wal*Mart worked directly with GE (led by Dartmouth grad Jeff Immelt, GE is also working hard to incorporate green initiatives into its overall corporate mission) to reduce the price of CFL's from $3.19 to $2.53 each. While still 10X the price of a regular bulb, the price cuts have made a big impact, and we can probably expect the price to fall further, if Wal*Mart's track record is any suggestion of future trends.
I'll stop shamelessly paraphrasing the article now, and emphasize my overall point - what if all those "eyeballs" we keep talking about "monetizing" were focused 1% of the time on socially productive initiatives? The outcome might be incredible (impact on US oil consumption, anyone). Say what you will about Wal*Mart, and the company takes plenty of shots daily, they may be on the front end of an overall trend - let's hope so.
