National Christmas Tree embodies eco tenets:<br> reduce, reuse, recycle

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Despite snarky comments by Andrew Malcolm at The Times’ Top of the Ticket blog, the National Christmas Tree outside the White House represents the most energy-efficient tree in recent history. It is expected to consume just 6,000 watts over the holiday season, compared to 18,000 watts last year, and 40,000 in previous years.

The lighting for the living, 42-foot-tall Colorado blue spruce is LED from topper to toe and was designed by the General Electric Lighting and Electrical Institute in Ohio, as it has been since 1962.

LEDs use a fraction of the energy of traditional incandescent bulbs and last 10 times longer -- energy savings that add up on a tree with 750 strings of white lights. Some of those strings were recycled from last year’s tree.

The White House and National Park Service Foundation also suggested that ‘in the whole spirit of recycle and reuse that we take a look at reusing some of the ornaments from the past,’ said National Christmas Tree designer Mary Beth Gotti in a cellphone interview from the White House grounds just before President Obama’s daughters pushed the button to light up the tree Thursday evening.

The star-shaped ornaments come from the 1998, 2004 and 2008 National Christmas Trees, and were retrofitted with LEDs bulbs as well.

-- Susan Carpenter