Something to Think About

Online DISC Assessment Now Available - The Success Insights® DISC Profile Behavioral Assessment is an analysis of each individual's behavioral style to increase your self-awareness and abilities to develop adaptive styles to meet the demands of your work and customer environments. It will take you no more than 15 minutes to complete the online assessment and I promise, you will be impressed with the results. The cost to you is $80 and all you have to do is go to my website at:

http://www.attardimarketing.com/services/

You will then see: Order the online DISC assessment ONLY for $80.00.  

Once you place your order, I will then email you the link and the necessary instructions to take the online DISC assessment. Once completed, you will then receive a 25 page report automatically. Once completed, you will then receive a 25 page report automatically. Learn about your own behavioral style and how you can recognize the behavioral style of others.

News Updates for the Week of October 31

1.      GSA Issues Net Zero Retrofit Challenge - The U.S. General Services Administration has announced its Net Zero Renovation Challenge, which aims to get the private sector to improve the energy performance of federal buildings through the use of energy service performance contracts.  In the challenge, 16 energy services companies who already provide ESPCs to federal agencies will retrofit plans for approximately 30 federal buildings across the country. These projects will be evaluated by a panel of independent experts based on energy savings, financial and technical innovation and applicability to other federal buildings. The winning entries will be awarded the ESPCs, as well as future ESPCs. Under such contracts, a private sector energy services company develops and installs energy improvements. The building owner–in this case the federal government–then repays the energy company for the capital expenditure over a maximum 25-year period from the resulting energy savings, allowing building owners to retrofit properties without any upfront cost to them. 10/21 Environmental Leader

2.      Next Generation Luminaires - The 2012 Next Generation Luminaires™ (NGL) Solid-State Lighting Indoor Design Competition was officially launched to recognize and promote excellence in the decision of energy-efficient LED commercial luminaires. Written Intents to Submit are due by December 16, 2011, and must be submitted online at www.ngldc.org Final submission forms are due by January 13, 2012, and physical product samples are due by January 18. Judging takes place in February, and results will be announced at LIGHTFAIR^® International in May. http://www.ngldc.org/

3.      TVA Revamped Energy Efficiency Website - The Tennessee Valley Authority has unveiled a redesigned website for tips and information about how consumers can conserve energy whether at home, at a business or in an industry. TVA supplies power to about 9 million people in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. http://www.energyright.com/business/lighting.html

4.      TVA, Local Utilities Double Energy Efficiency Cash Incentive to Businesses - The Tennessee Valley Authority and electric utilities in the Tennessee Valley are offering a 100% increase in cash incentive payments to businesses and industries that participate in the EnergyRight Solutions for Business and Industry program. Effective immediately, TVA will increase the cash incentive payment from 5 cents to 10 cents for each kilowatt-hour saved by businesses that enroll in the program. www.energyright.com

5.      DOE Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium - The 35 million streetlights in the U.S. – on every night–are one of the lighting applications attracting considerable interest for conversion to SSL products. These products can offer energy savings, reduced maintenance, and improved visibility-benefits that can tip the balance for cities concerned about the environment, safety, and the bottom line. This conversion is far from being a no-brainer, however. It requires careful product specification and evaluation. That's why a growing number of cities are evaluating LED street lighting products–and why, to help inform and harmonize their efforts, DOE last year launched the Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium, which has already grown to more than 300 primary members, including municipalities, utilities, and energy efficiency organizations. The Consortium has developed a Model Specification for LED Roadway Luminaires,

6.      Release of ENERGY STAR Lamps V1.0 Specification Draft 1 - This new specification is intended to replace the existing Compact Fluorescent Lamps and Integral LED Lamps specifications, as well as the qualification requirements for GU24-based fluorescent lamps previously detailed in the Residential Light Fixture specification. The first draft was developed with consideration of comments received in response to the Lamps Specification Framework released on March 22, 2011.

7.      Inventing a New Socket for LED Lighting - LED light source maker Bridgelux in a partnership with Molex early next year plans to start producing a new lighting component that dispenses with the classic screw base. Whether it becomes a de facto industry standard remains to be seen, but the product offers a glimpse into the design possibilities and technical challenges of solid-state lighting. http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20117261-54/inventing-a-new-socket-for-led-lighting/

8.      The Global Lighting Manufacturers Industry Report - This report is an in-depth financial evaluation of the Global Lighting Manufacturing Industry. Using the unique Plimsoll method of analysis, each of the top 750 Global Lighting Manufacturers each other and compared to industry averages. Along with individual company information, this report also contains an assessment of the market, based on the companies analyzed. For more information click on: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/971b9e/the_global_lighting_manufacturers_industry_re

Monthly Special Feature

The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

To help the kids I teach at Monmouth University, I read a paragraph or two from this book to give them some idea of the world they will be careering into. I encourage you to read it…Times, they are a’changin…

Chapter three is called "The Ten Forces that Flattened the World." This is Friedman’s attempt to explain what the forces were that created this flat playing field.

DAY 1: The first flattener is 11/9—not 9/11, 11/9. In a wonderful cabalistic accident of dates, the Berlin Wall came down on 11/9, November 9, 1989. The fall of the Wall was a huge flattener. Before then, you could not have a global policy. You could have an Eastern policy, you could have a Western policy, but it was very hard to have a global policy when there was a wall in the way. Windows operating system 3.0 shipped six months after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

DAY 2: The second flattener occurred on 8/9/95. August 9, 1995, is the day a small company in Mountain View, California, called Netscape, went public. Netscape's IPO was a transformative day in our lifetime, for three reasons:

• Netscape going public gave us the Internet browser. 
• It gave us a set of transmission protocols, kind of digital pipes that commercialized a set of open standards that really made the Internet interoperable. 
• Third and most importantly, Netscape triggered the dot-com boom, which triggered the dot-com bubble, which triggered the crazy, wild, ridiculous, massive overinvestment in fiber-optic cable—$1 trillion in five years. 

The accidental result was that within five years of Netscape going public, Bangalore and Beijing and the Bronx had become next-door neighbors. People were able to connect with people elsewhere like never before.

DAY 3: The next flattener was workflow. All the software and standards that connected all that bandwidth from those fiber-optic cables with all those PCs. Applications were now talking to applications. Suddenly we could work together in whole new ways.

DAY 4: The first new form of collaboration was outsourcing. Suddenly, when people-to-people and application-to-application can connect, I can move it anywhere—where the most efficient, effective or cheapest producer can operate it.

DAY 5: The second new form of collaboration was offshoring, when I take my factory from Canton, Ohio, and move it lock, stock and barrel to Canton, China, where it then gets integrated into my whole production operation.

DAY 6: The third great new form of collaboration is open sourcing. Wikipedia is an open-source dictionary and encyclopedia, where people simply contribute the entries on their own. It is self-corrective. It may be the main post-industrial forum of creative innovation.

DAY 7: The fourth new form of collaboration is supply-chaining…..Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has designed a global supply chain down to the last atom of efficiency, so if you take an item off the shelf in Brooklyn, another is immediately made in Shenzhen, China. 

DAY 8: The fifth new form of collaboration that sprung off this platform is insourcing……UPS. What UPS does now is go inside your company and take over your whole internal logistics operation right up to your neck. There are whole companies today who never touch their products anymore. They have been completely insourced to UPS or FedEx or DHL. 

DAY 9: The last new form of collaboration is informing, what Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Search do. They allow you to collaborate now with data all by yourself. You are able to mine all your data all by myself. 

DAY 10: The tenth Friedman simply calls the "steroids." The steroids are voice-over-the-Internet and wireless. What the steroids are doing is turbocharging all six of these new forms of collaboration and now allowing you to do any one from anywhere with any device.

What does all of this mean? Tom Friedman believes and I agree “…it means that we are now connecting all the knowledge centers on the planet together into a single global network, which–if politics and terrorism do not get in the way–could usher in an amazing era of prosperity and innovation.” From our lips to God’s ear…

News Updates for the Week of October 24

Online DISC Assessment Now Available - The Success Insights® DISC Profile Behavioral Assessment is an analysis of each individual's behavioral style to increase your self-awareness and abilities to develop adaptive styles to meet the demands of your work and customer environments. It will take you no more than 15 minutes to complete the online assessment and I promise, you will be impressed with the results.  The cost to you is $80 and all you have to do is go to my website at:

http://www.attardimarketing.com/services/

You will then see: Order the online DISC assessment ONLY for $80.00. 

Once you place your order, I will then email you the link and the necessary instructions to take the online DISC assessment. Once completed, you will then receive a 25 page report automatically. Once completed, you will then receive a 25 page report automatically. Learn about your own behavioral style and how you can recognize the behavioral style of others.

1.      Facebook, NRDC, and Opower Partner to Develop a New Social Energy Application - Facebook, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Opower announced a first-of-its-kind partnership to use the power of social networking to raise consumer awareness about energy consumption through a joint development of a new social energy application. Leveraging the Facebook platform, the app will enable consumers who choose to participate to benchmark their home's energy usage against a national average of similar homes, compare their energy use with friends, enter energy-saving competitions, and share tips on how to become more energy efficient. The partnership builds upon each organization's strengths to offer a powerful tool that provides context and connection for helping people become more energy efficient. 10/17 PRNewswire

2.      DOE Releases Summary Results from Round 13 of Caliper Testing - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has completed Round 13 of product testing through the DOE Solid-State Lighting (SSL) CALiPER program. A Summary Report containing the results is now available for download on the DOE SSL website at www.ssl.energy.gov/reports.html  Round 13 of product testing included three primary focus areas: LED and benchmark high-bay luminaires; LED wallpack luminaires; and LED and benchmark 2'x2' troffers. Detailed test reports for Round 13 will be available soon through the searchable online CALiPER system: www.ssl.energy.gov/search.html

3.      The Tough Business of LEDs - Proving that energy-saving products don’t easily make a good business, Royal Philips Electronics today reported that third quarter profits in its LED-reliant lighting division tumbled by nearly 50 percent. They blamed the profits decline in large part on sales of the diodes. As SmartPlanet has noted, the industry has overproduced the chips and is clearing out inventory at reduced prices. The glut has been caused by a fall-off in the market for flat screen televisions and other displays that use LEDs for backlighting. Philips also blamed the income erosion on a decline in consumer lamp sales, including LED as well as conventionally lit lamps. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/the-tough-business-of-leds/9655

4.      China LED Lighting Market to Experience Rapid Growth in Next Few Years - Studies show that total market size of the global lighting market (includes both LED and traditional lightings) in 2010 was US$79.3 billion. Demand is expected to increase due to China's economic success and policies aiming to narrow the gap between urban cities and rural areas. Market watchers estimate that by 2015 China's lighting market will reach US$20 billion, accounting for 18.3% of the global market. Developed economies such as Europe and North America currently account for more than 50% of the global lighting market with market size close to US$40 billion. However, the growth is expected to slow down as developments have come to a certain stage. China's lighting market, on the other hand, will show rapid growth. Market research institutes indicate China's LED lighting market has been stimulated by the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Local governments have also been providing policies to support and encourage the development of the industry. In a few years, it is likely for the demand for LED related products to increase as China focuses on major developments that are also eco-friendly. http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20111014PD209.html

5.      Dominion's Green Power and Lighting Programs Reduce Emissions - Dominion Virginia Power's Green Power® and discount program for the purchase of CFL bulbs together are reducing emissions by the equivalent of removing 326,700 cars from the road for a year. The CFL purchases also will save customers more than $349 million on their energy bills over the life of the bulbs. As of September 30, approximately 13,000 residential and commercial customers were enrolled in Green Power, an increase of 31 percent from July 2010. Customers voluntarily pay a little extra in their Dominion bill each month to support renewable energy. Information: www.dom.com/VAGreenPower Dominion offers instant discounts when purchasing CFL bulbs at participating stores in Virginia and North Carolina. A list of retailers is available at www.dom.com/LightingProgram

6.      TN Applications Accepted for Energy Efficiency Grants - The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development said in a news release they are taking new applications for a third round of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block grants to communities across the state. The department has previously given out $12.1 million in these grants to 135 communities.The grants can be used to fund a variety of projects on the local level, such as retrofitting lighting and heating and cooling systems to be more efficiency, as well as installing renewable energy systems. 10/17 AP

7.      TVA Offering Cash Incentives to EnergyRight Participants - TVA is increasing the incentive it will pay to businesses and industries taking part in its EnergyRight Solutions program to conserve energy. Effective immediately, TVA will increase the cash incentive payment from 5 cents to 10 cents for each kilowatt-hour saved by businesses that enroll in the program. The utility said it has made more than $4 million in reimbursements to more than 500 companies. 10/14 Knoxville News-Sentinel  http://www.energyright.com/

8.      September Housing Starts Jump 15% - Housing starts came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 658,000, up 15% from the August rate of 572,000, and up 10.2% compared with September 2010, according to data released this morning by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The figure of 658,000 was the highest total housing-starts figure since April 2010, when starts stood at 687,000. Meanwhile, building permits in September were at a rate of 594,000, 5% below the August rate of 625,000. 10/19 HCN

9.      IES Annual Conference in Austin, TX, October 30 through November 1, 2011 -  http://www.ies.org/ac/conf-reg.cfm

10.  The Retrofit Program - Although government, environmentalists and fiscal hawks rarely agree on environmental issues, a new public-private partnership to finance U.S. energy efficiency retrofits (the “Retrofit Program”) is attracting broad public support. The Retrofit Program is being funded by a private consortium known as PACE Commercial Consortium (“PCC”) without any government loans, subsidies, tax credits or other govenrmental assistance, other than legislative support from state and local government. Because the Retrofit Program combines market-based solutions with traditional property secured municipal finance, PCC believes the Retrofit Program will pave the way for other profitable, long-term clean energy solutions. 10/17 Environmental Leader

11.  McGraw-Hill Construction Sees Flat Construction Environment in 2012 - Lingering doubts in the minds of business executives and consumers about the health of the U.S. economy, uncertainty over the political turmoil in Washington, D.C., and weak demand will probably choke off any significant growth in the 2012 construction market. That’s the consensus of the construction economists at McGraw-Hill Construction Outlook 2012, held Oct. 19 in Washington, D.C. Overall, McGraw-Hill Construction expects the level of construction starts in 2012 to be $412 billion, following the 4% decline to $410 billion predicted for 2011. http://electricalmarketing.com/

12.  Massachusetts Leads Efficiency Rankings - Massachusetts edges out California for first place in the annual rankings from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). California ranks second, New York is third, and Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Rhode Island tie for fourth place. 10/20 The Los Angeles Times

News Updates for the Week of October 17

Online DISC Assessment Now Available - The Success Insights® DISC Profile Behavioral Assessment is an analysis of each individual's behavioral style to increase your self-awareness and abilities to develop adaptive styles to meet the demands of your work and customer environments. It will take you no more than 15 minutes to complete the online assessment and I promise, you will be impressed with the results. The cost to you is $80 and all you have to do is go to my website: 

 http://www.attardimarketing.com/services/

You will then see: Order the online DISC assessment ONLY for $80.00. 

Once you place your order, I will then email you the link and the necessary instructions to take the online DISC assessment. Once completed, you will then receive a 25 page report automatically. Once completed, you will then receive a 25 page report automatically. Learn about your own behavioral style and how you can recognize the behavioral style of others.

1.      Clinton-Backed Efficiency Program Tackling 30m Sq Ft of Commercial Space - A Los Angeles program backed by the Clinton Climate Initiative is giving building owners financing and free energy assessments, in an effort to raise the efficiency of 20 to 30 million square feet of commercial space. The LA Commercial Building Performance Partnership http://www.lacommercialbpp.com/  aims not only to help commercial property owners make their buildings more energy and water efficient, but also to save tenants money. The partners say they will offer financing at competitive rates to cover up to 100 percent of the cost of an owner’s energy upgrades. One option available through the partnership is property assessed clean energy (PACE) financing, in which building owners can secure capital and repay the costs through their property tax bill, payable over periods of up to 20 years. Improvements to building energy and water efficiency could include on-site clean energy generation, lighting and chiller plant upgrades or the installation of new technology to control and monitor energy use. 10/13 Environmental Leader

2.      Vu1 Corporation Signs Manufacturing Agreement with Huayi Lighting Company Ltd. to Supply 250 Million Units (Bulbs) Over Five Years - New York City-based Vu1 Corporation has developed a new energy efficient light bulb made in China to provide the consumer market with the first affordable, non-toxic light bulb with features consumers are demanding and not receiving from existing products. The Vu1 Electron Stimulated Luminescence™ – ESL light bulb is energy efficient and specifically designed to replace a 65W incandescent R-30 flood bulb in recessed light fixtures. The Vu1 reflector bulb gives uniform flood illumination and a light quality that is virtually indistinguishable from the incandescent lamp it replaces. www.vu1.com

3.      Sylvania LED Bulbs to Appear at Menards - Osram Sylvania released new LED bulbs at Menards stores on Oct. 11. Part of the “Ultra LED” A line, the omnidirectional bulbs are available in two wattages. The 8W is equivalent to the 40W incandescent, and the 13.5W is equivalent to the 60W incandescent. The Ultra LED BR 30 and BR 40 are replacements for the equivalent 65W incandescent models.  10/12 HCN

4.   ‘$1bn’ University Green Endowment Plan Launched - Harvard and Stanford are among 32 universities that have committed $65 million to new energy efficiency financing initiative Billion Dollar Green Challenge. The fund aims to get colleges, universities and other nonprofits to invest a total of $1 billion in self-managed “green revolving funds.” Such funds are used to finance energy efficiency upgrades that offer a quantifiable monetary saving or return. Such funds have a median annual return on investment of 32 percent.  Full lists of participating universities, coordinating partners and financial backers can be found at the Billion Dollar Green Challenge website http://greenbillion.org/ 10/13 Environmental Leader

5.      LUMEN Coalition Showcases Energy-Efficient Light Bulb Options - LUMEN – a coalition of more than 40 manufacturers, nonprofits and consumer groups – is informing consumers about the variety and benefits of energy-efficient lighting products and will unveil a new consumer-friendly website http://lumennow.org/ LUMEN is led by the Alliance to Save Energy, the American Lighting Association (ALA) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). 10/11 Alliance to Save Energy

6.      Choosing a Bulb Website - Once you make the smart choice to pick an energy-efficient bulb, you need to decide which bulb to buy for different fixtures. Companies are making this easy, by having energy-efficient options for almost every type of scenario. http://www.ase.org/resources/choosing-bulb 

7.      LED Lighting Sees Improvements with the Addition of Hybrid Capacitors - A combination of an ultracapacitor and a lithium-ion battery, hybrid capacitors are an ideal choice to power LEDs, which have bright output with low input power. Because of the low energy and power of LEDs, hybrid capacitors are a longer term energy source than other alternative energy storage solutions on the market. They provide for more energy storage with an energy density up to 115 percent more than standard electric double-layer capacitors (ELDCs). LED devices last longer, charge faster, incur fewer maintenance costs, consume less power and are more environmentally friendly. Hybrid capacitors are responsible for these benefits, and they make LEDs an attractive solution for solid-state lighting. 10/4 Environmental Leader

8.      Costs of Rare Earth Metals for Cleantech Applications to Reach $1.2 Billion by 2017 - In testimony before Congress on September 21, Mark Smith, CEO of rare earth mining concern Molycorp, said that China, which now controls some 97% of the world’s supply of rare earth metals, will continue to limit exports of the valuable elements, restricting its supply largely to domestic customers.  According to a recent report from Pike Research, demand for rare earths in the cleantech industry will reach 12,920 tons per year by 2017, up from approximately 9,000 tons annually in 2011, which could place an increased strain on global supply for these emerging applications.  Supply uncertainties will drive the cost of rare earth metals to makers of cleantech applications to at least $1.2 billion by 2017. http://www.pikeresearch.com/research/rare-earth-metals-in-the-cleantech-industry

9.      Cree Continues to Lead LED Industry with Even Brighter Lighting-Class LEDs  - Cree, Inc. to extend the advantage of its Xlamp® LED family with the announcement of new levels of performance, now delivering up to 140 lumens per watt. The XP-G LED can help lighting manufacturers reduce system cost and complexity and can make existing designs brighter and more efficient. Cree XP-G LEDs also boast the longest projected lifetime data published. www.cree.com 10/12 BUSINESS WIRE 

10.  TerraLUX Appoints Lighting Veteran Brian Dundon to Chairman of the Board - TerraLUX, Inc. announced the expansion of its Board of Directors to include former Philips Lighting Electronics CEO Brian R. Dundon. Mr. Dundon, who will assume the Board Chairman role, also served as Chair of the Lighting CEO Board for NEMA from 2006 to 2009. TerraLUX Inc. is headquartered in Longmont, Colorado and invents, designs, patents, manufactures and distributes innovative high power LED solutions for general illumination, industrial, commercial, medical and portable applications. www.terralux.com