Greenpeace today staged a protest at the headquarters of Woolworths PLC in central London as part of a campaign to get the retailer to get power crazy incandescent light bulbs off the shelves by 2008. The action was timed to coincide with the release of the group's half yearly results.
Volunteers delivered thousands of signatures written on flags and formed a colonnade which staff passed under to reach their offices, while holding a banner reading "Customers tell Woolworths - shelve old bulbs now". Office workers were handed free compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs as gifts and urged to bring up the topic with their managers.
The environmental group claims that a recent policy announcement made by Woolworths concerning the phase out of old fashioned, incandescent light bulbs is dangerously weak.
While other retailers have committed to remove all such bulbs from stores as soon as this year, Woolworths have just announced a move which would barely comply with the Government's own voluntary initiative - which would see the bulbs off the shelves by 2012.
In addition, the cheapest compact fluorescent bulb currently on sale at Woolworths is priced at £2.49, while the retailer recently announced that they would be selling an entire bottle of Champagne for £5 - the price of two low energy light bulbs.
For each year that British retailers keep selling incandescent light bulbs, 5 million tonnes of unnecessary Co2 are released into the atmosphere. Put another way, if all UK retailers moved as slowly as Woolworths, the UK would emit 20 million tonnes of Co2 unnecessarily - that's equivalent to the yearly output of the entire country of Yemen.
Robin Oakley, a climate campaigner with Greenpeace, commented:
"We're here to tell Woolworths that their customers want them to move a lot faster. Removing power crazy light bulbs from the shelves should be a first, quick step on the road towards offering truly sustainable products across the board. Instead, Woolworths are doing the bare minimum, while most of their competitors are going much further."
Woolworths recently changed its policy after a Greenpeace league table, which lists the commitments of all major UK retailers to phasing out power crazy bulbs, gave them a W grade - for worst. A recent hurried decision to comply with the 2011 Government target still puts them behind Currys (2007), Habitat (2009), Sainsburys (2010), and Asda (2010).
"The scientists are telling us that we have less than ten years left to really drastically reduce our carbon dioxide emissions" Oakley continued - "but Woolworths are telling us that it takes four of those years to change a light bulb. If the company really cares about offering their customers value for money they should only be selling CFL bulbs, which save households around £50 every single year."
Notes to editors
- Switching to energy efficient, compact fluorescent bulbs will cut 15% from the average household electricity bill. This equates to around £50 per year.
- The cheapest compact fluorescent, energy efficient bulb on sale at Woolworths is priced at £2.49. This is twelve times more expensive than their cheapest incandescent bulb (at 20p). Efficient CFL bulbs are on sale for 39p at Morrisons or 49p at John Lewis.
- Using Government figures, Greenpeace has calculated that the UK could save 5.1 million tones of Co2 per year by eliminating incandescent light bulbs - the equivalent output of the 26 lowest emitting countries combined. Put another way, if the entire country made this switch, the Government could shut down two entire power stations.
For more information, pictures and interviews please contact the Greenpeace press office on 0207 865 8255
