Of green lights and golden carrots.

• Author: Browner, Carol
• Position: EPA incentive programs - Leadership in Environmental Initiatives

The EPA's incentive programs are powering corporations to embrace a more energy-efficient and pollution-free future.

Few issues have gained as strong a hold on global consciousness over the past decade as the environment. As people of all nations have grown to appreciate the fragility of our natural world, we've evolved into a community that is willing to recycle and reuse, reduce waste, and do all that we can to prevent pollution.

Traditionally, many nations, including the United States, have relied on a "command-and-control" strategy to clean up pollution, requiring polluters to comply with "end-of-pipe" regulations that clean up the environment after the damage is done. But without relaxing such regulations, the Clinton administration is also placing a stronger emphasis than ever before on pollution prevention -- keeping pollution from being generated in the first place.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency encourages business to curb pollution voluntarily through several innovative "green" programs. These programs demonstrate that pollution prevention is not only environmentally sound but profitable, too. In fact, only by addressing environmental protection concerns can economies truly prosper. And the environmental protection industry itself creates jobs by establishing markets for new products.

Green Lights is EPA's flagship pollution prevention program. Through Green Lights, EPA encourages organizations to use energy-efficient lighting, thus clearing the air while enhancing the participants' bottom line. If energy-efficient lighting were used wherever it was profitable, U.S. demand for electricity would fall by over 10%. Annual carbon dioxide emissions could drop by 4%, sulfur dioxide emissions by 7%, and nitrogen oxide emissions by 4% -- reductions equivalent to taking 44 million cars off the road each year. These reductions would curb acid rain, help slow the greenhouse effect, and save rate-payers as much as $16 million a year.

Faced with an intensely competitive marketplace, industry has been quick to realize the benefits of Green Lights. There is no down side to energy-efficient lighting -- no burden that an organization has to shoulder to be environmentally responsible. In fact, investing in new lighting technologies brings immediate financial benefits. Green Lights participants upgrade their lighting only where profitable, and only where lighting quality is maintained or enhanced. Green Lights is about results, not...