sandhills region opts to "change a light, change the world" Nearly 600 Sandhills citizens pledged to change out over 2,800 incandescent bulbs to Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs during the months of October and November, 2006.  Over the lifetime of these 2800 new CFLs, Sandhills citizens will avoid the use of 300,000 kilowatt hours of energy and save themselves $84,000 in energy costs! Each CFL saves $30 in energy costs over its lifetime.

 In October 2006, Sustainable Sandhills received a donation of 6,200 CFL bulbs from Sam’s Club and the Directorate of Public Works at Fort Bragg.  Nearly 4,800 bulbs were given to military families, and the remaining bulbs are being distributed in communities across the Sandhills.

Sustainable Sandhills’ goal with this program is to raise awareness of the energy and cost savings that occur with an action as simple as changing a light bulb. Wanting to multiply the impact of the original CFL donation, Sustainable Sandhills has been rewarding local “big box retail shoppers” with a free CFL--on their way out of the store--for every three CFL’s they purchase inside the store.

The success of the Change a Light, Change the World program can be attributed to the dedication of our committed volunteers and staff.  In November, staff and volunteers visited five local Wal-Mart Super Centers to promote the benefits of CFL’s to a whole new audience for Sustainable Sandhills - Wal-Mart shoppers!  We set up tables near the Wal-Mart Greeter’s station and made the pitch to folks on their way into the store.  To date we have visited stores in Erwin, Aberdeen, Fayetteville, Sanford and Hope Mills.  We are currently planning 2007 visits to Laurinburg, Rockingham/Hamlet, Biscoe and Lumberton.

“We probably influenced 15 percent to 20 percent of the people we met, and were able to really educate maybe 5 percent,” said Sustainable Sandhills Board member Maureen Sutton, “but that's a lot, given the traffic flow thru a Wal-Mart store on a Saturday morning!” 

While a number of customers had already heard of CFLs and changed out bulbs in their homes and businesses, we were successful in reaching an audience that has little or no awareness of Sustainable Sandhills.

“I think the best result of our presence was creating awareness of the energy situation, and bringing ‘vague issues’ down to local and personal levels in some people who hadn't previously given it a lot of thought,” said Sustainable Sandhills volunteer Jan Leitschuh. “Even if people didn't stop to chat, they saw ‘those funny-looking bulbs,’ and as we know, repetition is the mother of learning.”

Our Big Box CFL give-away program turned 600 free CFLs into sales of 2219 CFLs.  We still have over 800 bulbs left to hand out, so come help us turn those 800 freebies into sales of an additional 2500 CFL’s.  If you are interested in joining us at one of these Spring 2007 events, contact Jodi Kenney.