LED Lighting

Where are LEDs used?

LEDs are widely available around the world, making them accessible to most communities. They’re used in homes, schools, businesses, and institutions, as well as in outdoor lighting applications.

How do LEDs benefit the climate and the environment?

LEDs are much more efficient than conventional lighting technologies. Their longer lifespan and lower energy use means fewer wasted resources, lower greenhouse gas emissions (when the energy used to produce them is produced by burning fossil fuels), and less garbage in landfills.

The potential climate gains of moving away from inefficient lighting technologies are massive. One 2023 estimate projected that phasing out just one lighting type, linear fluorescent lamps, by 2025 would prevent 3.2 gigatons of CO₂ emissions—the equivalent of removing every passenger car in the world from the road for a year.²

Lowering energy demand by transitioning to LED lighting can also reduce strain on the power grid. This has the added benefit of helping to reduce power outages, particularly during periods of peak demand.

What’s more, LEDs hold the potential for even greater decarbonization. Today, the best-available technology on the market is significantly more efficient than the average LED. As a result, there’s still a great deal of opportunity to realize further climate benefits by pushing for higher efficiency across the board.

By quickly transitioning to LEDs and doubling the efficiency of new LEDs by 2030, the world could avoid 30 megatons of CO₂ emissions in 2050³—the equivalent of the annual energy use of 3,654,954 homes in the United States.⁴

How do LEDs support sustainable development and climate adaptation?

Around the world, clean, affordable lighting provides countless benefits. In addition to helping people work, study, cook, socialize, and move around safely after the sun has set, it allows medical professionals to see clearly to effectively diagnose medical conditions and perform procedures accurately.

LEDs make it much easier to provide these benefits to the hundreds of millions of people living without electricity, most of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa.⁵ Because they require much less power than other lighting technologies, they are able to run on even the smallest solar-powered electricity sources.

LEDs’ low energy requirements also make them a valuable resource for people who lose power in the wake of the extreme weather events that are increasing in frequency and severity in due to climate change.

How do LEDs benefit human health?

An older, but still common lighting technology, fluorescent lighting, contains mercury. Mercury can cause a variety of serious health problems, including damage to the digestive, immune, and nervous systems, as well as threats to fetuses and young children.⁶

When fluorescent bulbs are disposed at the end of their useful life, they typically end up in dumpsters and landfills, where they release mercury into the environment. Mercury then enters the food chain as it accumulates in aquatic organisms,⁷ particularly fish and marine mammals, as methylmercury.

LEDs protect the public and ecosystems by providing a mercury-free alternative.

How do LEDs save consumers money?

Since LEDs are far more energy efficient than other technologies, they lead to smaller energy bills. They also last longer, helping offset their higher upfront cost.

Taking into account all relevant costs, LEDs save consumers between 50 and 70% compared to alternative technologies. On average, the bulbs pay for themselves in energy cost savings in less than a year.⁸