The drive to a sustainable, circular economy approach for lighting

The lighting Industry is truly starting to embrace the concept of the Circular Economy and sustainability. Moving from what needed to be done, to what is happening now. Nigel Harvey outlines the need, and initiatives that we’re now seeing.

Resource Efficiency

Customer requirements are increasingly placing an emphasis on lighting that is truly sustainable – products that are not just energy efficient, but which are also resource efficient.

The Circular Economy is about resource efficiency, minimising the use of new raw materials in products, and keeping products in service for far longer. This requires products that will last longer in service – value engineered products that compromise longevity and are unlikely to last much beyond their warranty period should be avoided. They risk creating unnecessary waste, the requirement for early replacement, and hence a higher embedded carbon.

Resource efficient products are also more likely to be modular in design – with replaceable light sources and control gear. That means that if one critical component fails in use, the component can be replaced without having to replace the complete fitting.

Remanufacturing lighting

Clients, both corporate and public sector, are warming to the concept of reconditioned or remanufactured lighting to achieve both sustainability goals and cost savings. And now tenders are beginning to emerge which specify the reconditioning and reuse of luminaires in a project.

Lighting manufacturers are now embracing remanufacturing with the implementation of specialist departments within their organisations. To enable this change, manufacturers, or their subcontractors, need to develop the competencies needed to remanufacture fittings, and ensure remanufactured products are still compliant with relevant legislation. The support of end-users is vital in this transition, by seeking to identify any projects that might be suitable for upgrade rather than replacement. Increasingly, remanufactured or upgraded luminaires should be the norm, not the exception. In some cases it is evident that by reusing the original luminaires, the end user can obtain cost savings, light quality improvements and environmental gains, as well as a better price.