SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE LIGHTS THE WAY

July 2019

 
NSW Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) used a grant to fund the replacement of the Sydney Harbour Bridge’s lighting with LEDs.

NSW Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) used a grant to fund the replacement of the Sydney Harbour Bridge’s lighting with LEDs.

Governments are investing in energy efficiency projects of all sizes. Notably, the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage (OEH) offers a range of programs for supporting the uptake of energy efficiency through the Government Resources Efficiency Policy (GREP). One such program for smaller upgrades is the Small Sites and Heritage Energy Efficiency Scheme (SSHEES), which is a grants scheme that was used by the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) to upgrade the Sydney Harbour Bridge’s 65 lights to LED.

The new LED lights use 31% less energy and have improved illumination of the road, making it safer to cross the bridge. The project generates annual cost savings of $2,000 and emissions reductions of 2.7 tonnes. The cost savings generated by the lighting upgrade will be reinvested back into maintaining the bridge so that it may preserve its reputation as a world-famous, Australian landmark.

“We want to play a leading role in the transition to a low carbon economy. That’s why in 2015, ahead of the Paris Agreement, we set ourselves the ambition of becoming carbon positive by 2030. This ambition is a statement of commitment; demonstrating that businesses can commit to a low carbon economy, and that a low carbon economy can be good for business.

By becoming carbon positive, we expect to lower operational cost, improve resilience in our energy supply, attract increasingly carbon conscious investors, and develop a closer relationship with our consumers.

We’re committed to sourcing all our electricity purchased from the grid from renewable sources by 2020 and 100% of our energy across our operations from renewable sources by 2030. This includes directly supporting the generation of more renewable energy than we consume and making the surplus available to the markets and communities where we operate.”
— Clive Stiff, Chief Executive Officer, Unilever Australia & New Zealand – July 2019