Green Bay garden turns "green" with holiday lights

From a story by Sarah Thomsen on WBAY-TV:

The city of Green Bay is going "green" for the holidays and encouraging others to do the same -- to save money and the environment.

At the Green Bay Botanical Gardens, tens of thousands of lights connected by two miles of extension cords bring the holidays to life in all shapes, sizes, and colors. It's a display even Clark Griswold couldn't top.

And this year it comes with a new "green" addition -- a 45-foot tall, steel-frame tree adorned with 20,000 LEDs.

Not only do LEDs use less energy, "The energy that's used to light the lights, were making sure that comes from renewable power sources," WPS president Charlie Schrock said.

Wisconsin Public Service sponsors the annual holiday display, and this year it's focusing on conserving money and energy using efficient lights.

"They use one-sixth the energy a normal light would, so they're very efficient," Schrock said.

Right now about half of the 200,000 lights in the botanical garden's display are LEDs. Eventually they will all be energy-efficient.