Sustainable Lighting Made From Recycled Bottles

 

Metro Lighting Launches Recycled Glass Line Through Kickstarter

 

Berkeley, California - January 10, 2013 - Metro Lighting, a sustainable business leader, is launching a line of recycled glass lamps and fixtures through Kickstarter.com. The shades are made from clear bottle glass that is crushed, melted, and poured into molds. Metro Lighting builds the lamps and fixtures in their workshop in Berkeley, California.

 

"We designed a custom mold for lighting after we found a studio that could cast recycled glass," says Lawrence Grown, who owns Metro Lighting with is wife and business partner Christa Rybczynski. Both hold degrees in architecture. "The glass has a wonderful texture that is evidence of the casting process," says Rybczynski, "Each shade is a beautiful work of illuminated art." The shades are offered in seven colors, each available clear or sandblasted. LED light engines pair well with the sandblasted shades.

 

Metro Lighting (metrolighting.com, facebook.com/metrolightingCA) has been an Alameda County Certified Green Business since 2008. A rooftop solar array provides 100% of the energy needs for their retail showroom and manufacturing facility in Berkeley, California. The showroom features many fixtures built from repurposed items including glass insulators (from telephone poles), liquor bottles, bicycle rims and gears, and traffic light lenses in green, yellow, and red. 

 

Metro Lighting is the recipient of multiple awards, including Acterra's Business Environmental Award for Sustainable Built Environment, Residential Lighting Showroom Of The Year for Exceptional Community Involvement, and Best Green Business in the East Bay.  Most recently Metro lighting received a Berkeley Benchmarking Award from the East Bay Environmental Network presented by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner in November of 2012.   

 

Founded in 1993, Metro Lighting creates beautiful sustainable lighting, handcrafted in California. Their design-build studio moved the world towards a zero-waste culture by providing sustainable lighting fixtures intended to delight customers for generations. Their goal is to shift the lighting industry away from disposable products made by disposable labor overseas, to sustainable lighting made by skilled artisans in the United States, as noted in the slow goods movement. Metro Lighting simultaneously provides customers with the best products while supporting local skilled artisans in California.

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For more information or high-resolution photos, please contact Christa Rybczynski at 510-540-0509 or christa@metrolighting.com, or visit kickstarter.com.