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Interview with former president Bill Clinton

Taken at the Clinton Global Initiative

From left to right: Marieke van Schaik, Bill Clinton en Boudewijn Poelmann (c) William J. Clinton Foundation

Since 2005, the Clinton Foundation is a beneficiary of the Postcode Lottery. Of what significance has this relationship been to the foundation?

The generous support from the Postcode Lottery has helped us do even more in our fight against climate change. We’ve been able to help 40 cities around the world put programs in motion that will reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, including more than 250 building retrofit projects; aid ambitious plans to reduce landfill emissions, convert street lights to LED, and provide green transportation; and we are ramping up new programs in the areas of clean energy and deforestation. The people who participate in the Postcode Lottery helped make this possible.

If the relationship will be continued for another five years, what programs will be supported?

We’re constantly exploring new ways the Clinton Foundation can best leverage our resources, partnerships, and expertise to do even more in the fight against climate change. Over the next few years, we hope to work with more universities to dramatically reduce their carbon footprint, support the development of large-scale carbon positive building projects, gain further reductions in the prices of energy-efficient products for our partner cities, support construction of large solar thermal generating facilities, close landfills in major cities in the developing world, and implement strategies to stop deforestation that actually work.

The lottery is going to distribute 2.5 million LED light bulbs, produced by Lemnis Lighting, to all its participants together with WWF. What do you think of this LED campaign?
I was grateful the Postcode Lottery made this commitment at our 2007 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, with support from the WWF. I think these kinds of campaigns are tremendously important, because they prove that alternative energy solutions are as good for the economy as they are for the planet. My Foundation is currently helping the city of Los Angeles replace 140,000 street lights with LED light fixtures, which will reduce energy and save the city millions of dollars over time. And one of our partners Solar Night is distributing 500,000 solar flashlights, capable of lighting a small
room to homes of 2.5 million people in Haiti. We need to do more to demonstrate that this is good economics.

How does this boost of LED technology contribute to the goals of the Clinton Climate Initiative?
It provides a cost-effective way for everyone to reduce emissions and reduce utility bills. And it will increase public awareness of the benefits of LED technology so more and more people will purchase LED lights on their own, which should make the market sustainable at lower prices.

Do you use LED lighting yourself in your home or office? If so, what do you think of the quality?
Yes. At my Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, and in my home. Soon I hope to install it in my Foundation office in New York. At the Library, we used LED lighting to light many graphic panels and text. It works very well.           

Would you like to share a final thought with all the people who play in the Postcode Lottery and help to make your Foundation’s work possible?

The Lottery gives individuals the power to make a significant difference in solving big problems. We have to find more ways to raise large sums of money in small amounts from a very large number of people. Thank you for playing the Postcode Lottery and for your commitment to building a better world.