AKASHA
California restaurant flaunt
Amazes:
From the all-natural ingredients used in the food to the
hemp fabric furniture and organic cotton uniforms worn
by the staff, every detail of AKASHA was developed with
sustainability principles in mind. Located in Culver City,
Calif., the new five-star restaurant, bar and bakery
features American style cuisine in a hip, creative and
environmentally conscious atmosphere.
“It’s extremely important that all of my suppliers for
AKASHA share my values with regard to the
environment,” explains owner Akasha Richmond, a
renowned chef and popular author. “I want my
customers to know that everything they see in AKASHA
was selected for a reason. The atmosphere is both chic
and responsible, and the food is absolutely delectable!”
The focus on environmental impacts extends to the
lighting design as well. In a collaborative effort, GE
Consumer & Industrial, Light Group and Janmar Lighting
joined forces to develop a design focused on using
innovative technologies in new and unique applications.
This new approach not only defies traditional beliefs
about restaurant lighting, but also offers AKASHA a total
savings of more than $5,000 per year by reducing its
energy consumption.
ENVIRONMENTAL STYLING
Developing an energy efficient lighting system that would
still offer a high quality of light and appear warm and
stylish presented a significant lighting design challenge.
Traditional restaurant lighting sources such as halogen or
MR16 incandescent lamps were not to be used in
AKASHA’s lighting design. Only low-energy lighting
technologies such as LED, ceramic metal halide and
fluorescent were acceptable, and these types of lamps
still had to create a hip and lively dining atmosphere for
the customer.
To evaluate and overcome the many design challenges,
AKASHA brought in architect and design firm Preen.
Designer Alexis Readinger immediately sought the
expertise of John Barlow of Light Group and Janmar, a
fixture manufacturer that specializes in creating energy
efficient lighting solutions that have the look of
incandescent. The team swiftly devised a plan to ensure
the lighting system for AKASHA would mesh with the
restaurant’s overall environmentally conscious theme.
Using predominantly 20W ceramic metal halide and
dimmable compact fluorescent lamps from GE Consumer
& Industrial, the team was able to create a solution that
still offers exceptional light quality and atmosphere.
Although the use of ceramic metal halide technology is
very prominent within the retail sector, it is extremely
g imagination at work
GE and Janmar help chic
unique environmental style
amount of cost savings over the life of the system, plus
the exceptional quality of light output, it really
becomes an easy decision for the customer.”
That decision has clearly proven to be the right one in
the eyes of the restaurant’s owner. “The lighting design
and quality of the light throughout AKASHA is just
beautiful,” says Richmond. “And the best part is that
we’ve done it in a way that is still sensitive to the
environment.”
With its chic and environmentally conscious
atmosphere and its five-star quality cuisine, AKASHA
aims to delight, to excite, and especially, to amaze
California diners.
rare in the restaurant industry. The use of such a
unique technology for this type of application
presented a number of functionality issues, including a
perceived lack of color options and no dimming “The lighting design and
capacity. The team had to get creative.
quality of the light throughout
“Traditional restaurant lighting uses halogen and MR16
lamps to produce a warm and inviting atmosphere
with superior quality and a precise distribution of light,”
AKASHA is just beautiful, and
explains Michael Aubrey, President of Janmar Lighting.
“With AKASHA, we found a way to use mostly GE’s the best part is that we’ve
CMH® lamps to achieve a similar effect. We did it by
adding a halogen color filter and hexel louver to warm done it in a way that is still
and soften the light, which created a dimmed effect
without actually dimming the source.
The result was an energy efficient lighting system that
sensitive to the environment.”
still maintained a warm incandescent look and feel
with high visual drama.”
GE Consumer & Industrial spans the globe as an
industry leader in major appliance, lighting and
The alliance between the three lighting companies was
integrated industrial equipment, systems and services.
a natural fit. “We knew we wanted to use a ceramic
Providing solutions for commercial, industrial and
metal halide -based design, and GE is an industry
residential use in more than 100 countries, GE
leader in low-watt ceramic metal halide technology,”
Consumer & Industrial uses innovative technologies
says Aubrey. “We designed our fixture to be
and "ecomagination," a GE initiative to aggressively
compatible with GE’s 20W CMH® lamps, and the result
bring to market new technologies that help customers
was a cutting-edge lighting solution that sets the
and consumers meet pressing environmental
standard for quality ceramic metal halide lighting.”
challenges, to deliver comfort, convenience and
electrical protection and control. General Electric
SIGNIFICANT ENERGY SAVINGS
(NYSE: GE) brings imagination to work, selling products
AKASHA’s focus on the environment is paying off,
under the Monogram®, Profile™ GE®, Hotpoint®,
literally. The restaurant is realizing significant savings
SmartWater™ GE Reveal® and GE Energy Smart™
in its total energy costs, in large part due to the well-
consumer brands, and Entellisys® industrial brand.
planned lighting design.
For more information, consumers may visit
“The decision to use technologies like ceramic metal
www.ge.com.
halide and dimmable CFLs may have been
unconventional, but it was an ingenious way of
achieving substantial cost savings,” says Mary Beth
Gotti, manager of GE’s renowned Lighting & Electrical
Institute. “Not only did the designers develop an
innovative solution that is sensitive to environmental
impacts, but they were able tooffer a real value
proposition to the customer.”
Aubrey estimates the GE 20W T CMH® lamps are
reducing AKASHA’s overall energy consumption by
approximately 77 percent when compared with a
standard design using MR16 and halogen lamped
fixtures.
“There is no denying that ceramic metal halide
systems cost more upfront to purchase,” admits
Aubrey. “But when you factor in the tremendous