Who Knew?

Last night was game four of the ALCS, better known as “the flogging of the Boston Red Sox by the Tampa Bay Rays”. For those not in the know, these games determine who plays in the World Series. As a gal from Beantown I am a true fan of the Sox but seriously, is it not football season? How many more weeks of baseball are there? Geez. Even though it seems late in the year for this summer sport, we have been watching all the Sox games.

I noticed in the past couple weeks that there were commercials with Anderson Cooper from CNN airing during all the games to advertise for Planet In Peril, a show slated to air on CNN on December 12, 2008 about lacking energy resources across the world. He indicated that if we wanted to do something about it now, Americans watching Game 4 of the American League Championship Series should pledge to turn out their lights while watching the game. A fifteen second portion of the commercial is presented by Sharp -- pledge to watch the game with our lights out to conserve energy, taking the Sharp Lights Out Challenge.

Each person goes on over to the website and clicks on their state to pledge to conserve energy then turns their lights off. Sounds like a great thing all by itself but then, surprise a sweepstakes! Grand prize is a 46” LCD Aquos TV, first prize is a 42” LCD Aquos TV. Cool!

The kicker in all of this is that while I was doing my research into reporting on this energy reducing effort and contest I discovered how Sharp is bringing their carbon footprint down in a major way through strong environmental efforts. A small fraction of the things they are doing as a company include:

☼ The world’s largest roof mounted solar panel system on their Japanese manufacturing facility.

☼ A commitment to providing some of the most energy efficient products on the market.

☼ In the next two years they hope to reduce emissions with their products to the same level as what their manufacturing facilities produce so they off set each other.

☼ They have a strong commitment to energy saving technologies in the entire lifespan loop of their products: manufacturing, packaging, transporting, usage and disposal or recycling of the item.

Way to go Sharp! Your efforts to help our planet are amazing and that is why I am giving you a Four Green Leaf Rating! Hooray!



Even though the game is over (and if you’re a Sox fan you are really excited we are not playing tonight) the challenge and sweepstakes is still going strong but only through tomorrow so stop over to the TBS / Sharp website today, click on your state, actually turn off those lights (or other energy sucking devices) and enter the sweepstakes. Who knows, maybe you will find yourself saving even more energy with one of those beautiful TVs.