Reducing the Environmental Impact in Light Fixtures – Whole Life Costing and Life Cycle Analysis of Lighting
The Circular Economy, Part 1
The construction industry is working to improve the sustainable credentials of the supply chain, with varying degrees of success. While some sectors have responded positively to a new sustainable agenda, other industries have struggled. The global lighting industry, amongst others. supplies complex product – and that has made sustainability reporting difficult.
But one place where we can make a difference is product longevity. The construction industry embraces the supply chain up to arrival at the site gates, but has a long way to go in terms of whole life costing and ‘after-life’ costing.
The lighting industry in the UK is making inroads into the principle of reuse, repurpose and remanufacture before recycling. Manufacturers are addressing the issue of product deconstruction (putting the days of glued components behind us) and bringing back the old idea of simply ‘changing the bulb’ when the LED engine is exhausted. ‘End-of-life’ is being replaced with ‘end-of-first-iteration’ and we’re imagining light fixtures having many iterations before they are finally consigned to the recycling plants. Today we will be looking at reducing the environmental impact in light fixtures by addressing some of the points outlined above.
John Bullock, director of John Bullock Lighting Design and editor of The Light Review will look at a number of initiatives that are being explored in the UK, both by UK-based companies and international manufacturers active in the UK.
John will be joined by Nigel Harvey, CEO of Recolight, responsible for the recycling of lighting waste under the WEEE Directive. He is one of the main instigators of the Remanufacturing initiative that is taking shape within the lighting community. Nigel will explain how he sees the original drive to recycle being transformed into a desire to Reuse, Repurpose and Remanufacture.
For more info on what events the Green Register have coming up, please visit our events page: www.greenregister.org.uk/training-events/
For more from John: https://www.thelightreviewonline.com/, http://www.jb-ld.co.uk/page/home
For more from Nigel: https://www.recolight.co.uk/