THE GREEN LIGHT SIGNAL
TYPE & TECH Social Impact & Sustainability, Data Capture, Smart Technology
CLIENT National Grid
Making clean energy visible
What if you could do your bit for the climate by simply knowing when to charge your devices?
With most of us giving little to no thought on how the power we use is generated, it’s factors like this that are having the biggest impact on our rising CO2 emissions. In partnership with Edelman we went about helping National Grid to develop a system which could empower people with that information.
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Introducing The Green Light Signal
An easy-to-use smart bulb and app system that tracked when places in the UK were running on clean and green energy sources through a local data tracking energy production tool.
As the balance of our energy source varies across the day this is a step forward in driving change for a greener future through a visualised experience within our homes. When an optimal time hits with your energy mainly supplied from low-carbon sources, such as wind or solar – the light would turn green indicating to users a time to turn on their applications, or charge their gadgets with less harm to the planet.
“This was a fantastic project to work on, what could be more inspiring than helping raise awareness than a simple behaviour change means everyone can help fight climate change.
Using IoT connectivity to link the National Grids prediction data to a Lifx smart bulbs via an IFTTT interface. Sounds simple but behind the scenes some clever coding made it all work seamlessly.”
– Stuart Cupit
Chief Technology Officer, Solarflare Studio
Creating a greener future
Through weather forecasting algorithms National Grid created a tracking system to predict the most green times to use energy on their website. They can even predict how power will be generated up to 3 days in the future by using AI to analyse weather data allowing consumers to plan when to use power!
We linked National Grids ESO real-time data from the website into an app and connected it to smart LED lightbulbs. When the optimal time to make use of sustainable energy sources was reached, it would glow green.
How We Hacked It.
With the ability for the LIFX Mini Colour bulb to be used with any standard table or floor lamp, it’s a discrete solution to allow you to become more conscious of your usages, making smarter energy sources.
STEP 1
We linked the National Grid data to Smart Bulbs through an IFTTT API.
Step 2
Carbon footprint data was pushed in real time from the servers to users locations.
Step 3
When their area’s energy source went green, users’ lightbulbs turned green to let them know it’s their prime time to use eco-friendly energy.
Throughout the UK, the low-carbon intensity campaign was shared and sent to hundreds of celebrities, influencers, decision-makers and politicians, and promoted at COP26.
Reaching 237.8M and achieved carbon savings equal to 17.1 million mature trees based on 1.1M households swapping 50% of energy use for clean and green.
This award winning project truly demonstrated how much a simple change of a light bulb could be a step forward in becoming a greener and cleaner future.
PR Cannes 2022 | PR Techniques, Use of Technology, Bronze Lion
Creative Data Cannes 2022 | Use of Real-time Data, Bronze Lion
Creative Data Cannes 2022 | Data Technology, Shortlisted
Creative Data Cannes 2022 | Data-driven Consumer Product, Shortlisted
Design Cannes 2022 | Promotional Item Design, Shortlisted
AdAge Creativity Award 2022 | Creative Data Campaign of the Year
Eurobest 2021 | The PR Eurobest Award, Bronze
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