Date Announced: 29 Aug 2012 San Jose, CA – The Bay Area Climate Collaborative (BACC) and SWARCO Traffic Americas, Inc. (SWARCO) today announced a collaboration to advance the market for energy efficient, adaptive lighting technologies through the Bay Area Next Generation Streetlight Initiative, a region-wide project to upgrade 200,000+ municipal streetlights to advanced light-emitting diode (LED) technology. SWARCO’s sponsorship of the BACC’s Bay Area Next Generation Streetlight Initiative will support advancement of new streetlight technology that will improve municipal budgets and strengthen the local economy. Through the Bay Area Next Generation Streetlight Initiative, the BACC is supporting local governments with leading edge analytics, resources and educational opportunities to accelerate action with a target of catalyzing the upgrade of 200,000 streetlights. Over five years, the upgrades will deliver up to $50 million in reduced costs for local governments, over 100,000 metrics tons of CO2 avoidance, and many jobs. SWARCO was founded in 1969 in Austria by Manfred Swarovski with a vision to develop and manufacture small, highly reflective glass beads to rest on top of roadway paint for improved nighttime visibility and safety for motorists. Today, 43 years later, SWARCO is the second largest roadway glass bead supplier in the world, the number one supplier of LED traffic signal heads, and a leader in parking guidance systems, traffic signal management, and public transportation services and software solutions. SWARCO recently opened a new Silicon Valley office in Sunnyvale, California. The BACC is a public-private initiative of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group launched by regional civic and business leaders in 2009 to accelerate the Bay Area clean energy economy and create replicable models of scalable climate action.“As the world’s largest producer of LED traffic lights, we are dedicated to identifying new technologies that provide intelligent, holistic and sustainable transportation and lighting solutions and products for increased safety, reduced power consumption, and reduced maintenance costs,” said Frank Harder, CEO with SWARCO Traffic Americas Inc. “Projects that help scale the energy efficient LED lighting market are critical to increased adoption, and that is just what we are supporting the BACC in doing with the Bay Area Next Generation Streetlight Initiative.” “LED streetlighting improves community safety, reduces carbon emissions and significantly reduces local government costs, and SWARCO is a true leader in the space,” said Rafael Reyes, Executive Director of the Bay Area Climate Collaborative. “We look forward to this collaboration that will advance the LED lighting market and build economic prosperity in the region.” About the Bay Area Climate CollaborativeThe Bay Area Climate Collaborative (BACC) is a public-private initiative accelerating the clean energy economy. Major partners include Bank of America, Pacific Gas & Electric, Environmental Defense Fund and local governments representing over 70 percent of the Bay Area population. The BACC is driving electric vehicle, energy efficiency, residential upgrades and distributed renewables innovation. For more information on the BACC, please visit: www.baclimate.orgAbout SWARCO Traffic Americas Inc.SWARCO is a growing international company specializing in a complete range of environmentally friendly high quality products, systems, services and solutions for road safety and intelligent traffic management. With over four decades of experience in the industry, the corporation supports the growing mobility needs of society with turnkey systems and solutions in road marking, urban and interurban traffic management, parking, public transportation, and traveler information. SWARCO is the world’s largest producer of LED traffic lights, the worldwide no. 2 in reflective glass beads, and puts a strong focus on energy-efficient, LED-based signaling and lighting technology.For more information, please visit: http://www.swarco.com/americas
Contact
Bay Area Climate Collaborative Claire Barton Program Manager 408-634-4554
E-mail:[email protected]
Web Site:www.baclimate.org
