TRILUX Lighting is proud to announce its recent success in the Build Back Better Awards Autumn edition.
On December 8, the company’s PLA Parelia prototype was presented (virtually) with both a GOLD and Green Build Back Better Award in the Lighting Product category.
The Build Back Better Awards are an exciting new initiative to champion building innovation, crea-tivity, environmental leadership, and social purpose.
They are designed to celebrate and reward the technologies and initiatives that will help us shape this new (post-pandemic) age and the products that point the way to a better future.
The GOLD award is reserved for products that exhibit true innovation and unique points of differ-ence. In this round, just five Build Back Better GREEN ratings were awarded, and TRILUX is proud to be among the recognised few.
A luminaire’s body is currently constructed from plastic or precious raw resources, so TRILUX decided to learn from other industries and looked for more sustainable, biodegradable materials. The surprising answer came from corn.
Polylactic acid (PLA) is a synthetic polymer based on lactic acid obtained from corn starch in an environmentally friendly way. The biocompatible thermoplastic is suitable for producing the lumi-naire body using a 3-D printing process. PLA products feature low moisture absorption and low flammability and high UV resistance, colour fastness, and bending strength.
Furthermore, the real advantage of PLA compared to conventional plastics is its biodegradability. Under industrial composting conditions, the material decomposes entirely in just a few months.
With GRAFT Architects, TRILUX took its continuous light line, Parelia LED and constructed the body from PLA. Parelia is ideal for lighting modern offices parallel to the building axis, without reflected glare from the direct component. Thanks to its high-efficiency lighting technology and op-tics, it generates glare-free light with 80% indirect light. The next steps are to analyse the quality and performance of the PLA Parelia under real-world operating conditions.
The Build Back Better Awards judges called it a big step forward in the materials and manufactur-ing process.
Leighton James, Leighton James, Product & Marketing Director TRILUX UK commented, “This is fantastic recognition of our efforts in moving towards more sustainable lighting. PLA Parelia is just one outcome of our sustainability research. With our SUMATRA consortium, we hope to address many more critical questions about the end of product life by looking for opportunities to improve the resource efficiency of lighting solutions on several different levels.”