Sanders went on to mention that the grace period to submit a product will soon be over, and those not listing a product will "go dark" on the Lighting Facts website.
On April 15, Sanders and the Lighting Facts team issued a notice to manufacturers who are "Partners without Product."
The notice said that it does not serve the program well if manufacturers use their partnership status without registering products. In order to maintain the integrity of the program, said the notice "on Monday, June 15, 2010 (60 days after today's date), all Lighting Facts Manufacturer Partners who have not had at least one product approved by the Lighting Facts Verification Team will have their partnership status suspended and will not appear on the online partner list."
Suspended partners may not claim partnership status on any promotional company materials or correspondence, and may not use the Lighting Facts Partner Mark. To reverse the suspension, manufacturers must have at least one product approved by the Lighting Facts Verification Team.
In a recent conversation with Derek Greenauer, DOE SSL Energy Star Program Manager, also with D&R International, Greenauer commented that manufacturers are no longer able to register as an Energy Star Partner without making an Energy Star SSL product submission.
Additionally, current Lighting Facts Manufacturer Partners who have not had at least one product approved AND who took the Lighting Facts Pledge prior to June 15, 2009 (a year prior to the date mentioned above) will have their partnership terminated. Such manufacturers must take the Lighting Facts Pledge again.
This is one of the many steps being taken by the Program to advance the value to the end user or specifier. This will hopefully give a gentle push to those manufacturers and at the same time curb the potential misuse of the credibility of the program by ‘passing off’ without a product.
