Nigel Harvey, CEO of Recolight, the WEEE compliance and collection scheme for the lighting industry, outlines how we can reduce the environmental impact of lighting by adopting sustainable, circular economy principles.
Legislative changes and end-users are increasingly placing emphasis on lighting that is truly sustainable – products that are not just energy efficient, but which are also resource efficient. We need to keep products in use for longer, rather than simply discarding them, or needlessly recycling them.
Modular light fittings
Resource efficiency seeks to minimise the use of new raw materials in products. This change will require products that are 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. This improves resource efficiency and saves the embedded carbon footprint associated with making new products.
Reused and remanufactured fittings
Another way of improving material efficiency in the lighting sector is to make used fittings available for remanufacture when they are replaced. Re-use like this has much better environmental outcomes than recycling – the body of the fitting is retained, and the light source or control gear can be checked or upgraded. Alternatively, some end-users are starting to specify product upgrades, rather than complete replacements. For example, retrofitting a T8 luminaire with an LED light source. In many instances, this upgrade can be performed on-site, without the need for the products to be returned to the factory.
It is encouraging to see a few tenders emerging where remanufactured products will also be considered alongside new lighting. Awareness that recycling does not usually represent the best outcome for end-of-life luminaires is much higher. That is pleasing because it means end-users and specifiers are more likely to consider remanufactured products.
Remanufacture can provide a range of benefits to end-users but this must be achieved without compromise on compliance. Remanufacturers need to be diligent in identifying, assessing and testing remanufactured products prior to declaring conformity and placing products on the market, using methods appropriate to production volumes, end application and product type.
If the lighting sector is to become truly sustainable, it will need an ecosystem of companies with expertise in remanufacturing luminaires when they are removed from a building. But rebuilding, upgrading, testing, certifying and reselling lighting products is no easy task.
Wholesalers and contractors can be a vital part of this process, by partnering with companies involved in re-use, and offering reused products for sale.
Recolight can support this transformation whenever companies purchase from Recolight member lighting companies. That support includes providing ‘cardboard bubble-wrap’ to contractors, finding a company willing to reuse or remanufacture the luminaires, and even financing the transport from the site to the recipient company.
Work with companies that are committed to net zero
When specifying new fittings, include a requirement for demonstrable commitments to net zero in the purchasing or tender criteria. Even better, give that requirement a visible and material weighting in the bid assessment process. It is important to check that any such claims are credible so there are a number of ways of checking the reality of the claims:
- Is there visible commitment to the policy from the top of the company?
- Has the company set short-term plans, actions and targets, not just a long-term “Net zero by 20XX” target?
- Check the extent of the target. For example, many companies have a target for 2030, but with a disclaimer that it only covers scope 1 and 2. But for most, the scope 3 use phase is by far the most dominant impact.
- Is the company’s net zero performance regularly assessed by an independent third-party?
- Has the company any life cycle assessment data for their products?
- To what extent does the company rely on carbon offsets? Offsets should only cover absolutely unavoidable, irreducible carbon emissions. And even then, they don’t really work. If the company does use offsets, do they have a plan to reduce reliance?
Recycling and the waste hierarchy
We should all relentlessly apply the waste hierarchy: reduce, reuse, recycle – and in that order. For example, greater use of daylight to reduce the number of fittings needed – or indeed to eliminate them in some locations. Prioritise the reuse and refurbishment of old fittings – for example can those T8 fittings be upgraded to LED, rather than disposing of the whole fitting? Do those T5 fittings really need to be replaced? Can they be used for longer?
Only recycle when all else fails – recycling loses most of the embodied carbon in a light fitting. It is rightly at the bottom of the waste hierarchy.
it is important to purchase from lighting producers committed to applying the waste hierarchy and to proper recycling. For example, is the producer a member of a WEEE scheme, which offers free of charge collection from their members’ customers (subject to appropriate criteria), and which looks for reuse options before the decision is taken to recycle?
Lighting and the circular economy
When specifying new fittings, include demonstrable commitments to the circular economy in the purchasing criteria. Currently, the best way of incorporating this is probably to reference SLL/CIBSE’s TM66 specification. The specification scores a product group against a range of criteria to show the extent to which it embeds circular economy principles. It is currently in beta release, and some of the criteria cannot be reliably and objectively assessed, but it is close.
When finalised, TM66 should make it much more straightforward for specifiers to compare the ‘circularity’ of lighting products.
We can expect to see further growth in circular economy approaches in the lighting industry. We will see more companies designing lighting products for a circular economy, but it will also mean more end-users will be willing to consider product re-use, remanufacture and upgrades, rather than complete product replacements.
