Interactive launch event 'Spinning the Future' demonstrates the benefits of LED lighting to the public through their own experience

Dubai, UAE; May 28, 2015

GE Lighting (NYSE: GE) has joined forces with Grains to drive towards a common goal - emphasizing the importance of sustainability on a global level. While Grains is focused on reducing food waste, GE is dedicated to reducing energy waste - together, GE and Grains are determined to help minimize waste. With this idea and goal in mind, GE has teamed up with Grains to contribute to a cleaner and more livable future. Reducing energy and food waste can help preserve precious resources and ensure quality of life for future generations.

GE Lighting will be a key partner of Grains in helping drive social responsibility. As wasting energy can be just as harmful as wasting food, it is important to be just as thoughtful about how we use our available energy resources. With GE Lighting's LED solutions, people can consciously save energy and make the planet a better place to live for upcoming generations. GE Lighting's LED solutions will be introduced at all Grains locations, Shop in Shop, Kiosks, Grains Stores, Ecommerce, M Commerce, Third Party Locations and Distribution Channels in order to make them readily available to all those who want to invest in the future.

GE considers the MEAT region as an extraordinarily significant part of their lighting business strategy due to the presence of numerous committed and dedicated partners, whose co-operation is substantial for creating a sustainable future. As the partnership develops, GE Lighting and Grains will work towards a global strategy to secure large, lighting-based energy reduction programs with retail businesses, hotels, petrol stations and public institutions that are aligned with the core objective of creating a more sustainable UAE.

Announcing the partnership, Agostino Renna, President & CEO, GE Lighting, EMEA, said: "GE is well equipped to take on big challenges. We believe in the path to mitigation of climate change through energy efficiency and we also believe that investment in LED lighting represents smart economics therefore eliminating the false choice between planet and profit.  With lighting accounting for about 20 percent of the world's energy usage, converting every light source in the world to LED can make a material improvement on energy stewardship and carbon reduction - this appeals to both logic and emotion."

It is estimated that US$750 million is lost annually in producing food that is never eaten, and over 3.3 gigatons of greenhouse gases are created in producing it. Over 900 million undernourished people across the world can be taken care of using this food, which goes to waste. Grains offers the opportunity for people to partner in addressing global hunger by saving food as well as donating free meals, and also composting the food wasted so that it is used productively to support organic farming.

Gundeep Singh, CEO & Founder of Grains, added: "Global research indicates that increasing numbers of consumers are starting to appreciate the importance of adopting more environmentally sustainable behavior.  Grains is reaching out to the growing community of people willing to factor in sustainability as part of their purchasing decisions and daily lifestyle. The partnership with GE Lighting and its commitment to social change will encourage people and businesses to adopt sustainable lighting solutions and during that journey also support reduction in food waste and hunger."

The partnership between GE Lighting and Grains was announced at an event organized at Sharaf DG (The Dubai Mall), the No.1 Electronics Retailer in the UAE.  Nilesh Khalkho, CEO, Sharaf DG, said: "Sharaf DG has joined hands with GE Lighting and Grains to promote eco-friendly products and ideas. The move from incandescent bulbs, CFL to LED will help customers in reducing electricity bills and at the same time reduce their carbon footprint. Through this Sharaf DG will bring awareness about sustainable living."

Visitors at the event had the opportunity to test their muscle strength while learning a lesson on sustainability through their own experience by comparing the energy needed to light up LED, CFL and incandescent light bulbs.

Using a stationary bicycle to produce the energy needed to light the bulbs, each guest was challenged to light up three sets of bulbs in sequence by pedaling to experience the energy input requirement of the three different types of light bulbs.

Grains aims to create a new model that will reduce food waste and provide meals for those in need, by creating a backbone of commercial support for the cause. Grains hopes to change behaviors by bringing together solutions and information that can help people make more responsible lifestyle choices that are sustainable and reduce food waste. For more details, log on to: eachgraincounts.com.   

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About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) imagines things others don't, builds things others can't and delivers outcomes that make the world work better. GE brings together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other company can. In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is inventing the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the world. www.ge.com

About GE Lighting
GE Lighting is changing the way people light and think about their world in commercial, industrial, municipal and residential settings. Light brightens our path to a better way of being. Today, light is intelligent. Light listens, learns and sees. GE. Where Light Is Bright. www.gelighting.com

For more information, please contact:
Caroline Wehbeh             
External Communications Director, GE, MENAT 
+9714 4296318 
caroline.wehbeh@ge.com 
                                                                  
Kelly Home/ Nivine William
ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller
+9714 4507 600
kelly.home@bm.com / nivine.william@bm.com

© Press Release 2015