Cree CEO Chuck Swoboda had a tough act to follow Tuesday at the North Carolina CEO Forum. His keynote address was scheduled a few hours after the keynote delivered by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. Yes, that Ben & Jerry — the guys who brought us Cherry Garcia and Chubby Hubby. And as if speaking after the famed ice cream giants wasn’t tough enough, Ben and Jerry brought the entire audience ice cream for breakfast AND lunch!
But when Chuck is passionate about something, it radiates when he speaks. So when he took the stage at the Raleigh Marriott City Center to address the room full of business leaders, I knew it would only be a few minutes before their minds would shift from ice cream to LED lights.
The forum’s topic was “The Triple Bottom Line: 21st Century Leadership in People, Planet and Profit.” And sure enough, within minutes, Chuck was telling it straight to the audience, saying “the cleanest and cheapest energy is the energy we never use.” Then he explained that LED lighting is really all about energy-efficiency with the big bonus of actually making good business sense, since LED lights can save businesses money on energy and maintenance costs. Chuck told earlier speakers who were discussing purchasing carbon offsets that LED lighting could’ve saved them about 50 percent of what they spent since it uses so much less energy than traditional lighting.
By then, Chuck’s passion was evident and he started ragging on the 130-year-old incandescent light bulb. “About the only useful place for this is on a shelf in a museum,” Chuck said as he lifted an energy-wasting 75 Watt bulb in the air. “It’s going to be about as popular of an idea as records.”
Chuck touched on investor-owned utility companies, saying that utilities are not incentivized to sell less energy. “We need to change the incentive structure so they can make money saving energy,” Chuck said. He also spoke about the need for raising standards that regulate energy efficiency. Why, he asked, are buildings required to have insulation and yet it’s OK to screw in energy-sucking lights? Good question.
And when it comes to being a leader in LED lighting, Chuck didn’t shy away from telling the audience how Cree stays ahead of the pack.
“We listen to what people say we can’t do and, basically, we just go do that,” Chuck said. “It’s been a really exciting source of innovation for our company.”
So while Chuck didn’t dish out any ice cream, he definitely served up some inspiration. But you don’t have to take my word on it. People who were at the event and/or reading Tweets from the event felt the same way:
A big thank you to the folks who organized this year’s N.C. CEO Forum. And if you were inspired to learn more about the LED Lighting Revolution, you can do it here.
