Chitra Painters turns the spotlight on green practices with solar lighting

Chitra Painters, a leading Kerala based media owner, is reaping benefits from their investments in solar lighting done at their advertising sites in Kerala where brands are now leveraging the eco-friendly element of sites through advertising. “There are various real estate brands that prefer sites with solar lighting to promote their big projects made on similar eco-friendly concepts. They find it relatable and use this element as a part of their campaign,” said Mahesh Chitraprakash, Director of Chitra Painters Group.

The OOH firm had taken a step in this direction around two years ago where they replaced halogen lighting of close to 180 sites into solar lighting in anticipation of the demand for eco-friendly OOH sites. “A few ago we had got an idea that the OOH industry would have to adopt eco-friendly solutions in the coming future but there was no eco-friendly material available then. So, we decided to move in the direction of eco-friendly lighting,” he added.

It cost the firm Rs 60,000-Rs 80,000 to change the conventional lighting into solar lighting at each site, with the work itself taking 2-3 days per site. But more than the investments, the maintenance of solar lights had been a challenge as the back-up support for such issues is not easily available. Also, during the monsoon season, the solar lighting of the sites is relatively dim.

Currently, there is no incentive bring offered by the government for adoption of solar lighting for OOH sites, the Chitra Painters leadership is of the view that any support from the administration would be a big plus for the industry.