Recolight, a UK based company, held an online panel discussion earlier, with the focus on lighting’s replaceable future. The discussion was moderated by Lux Review’s Ray Molony and featured the following panelist:
- Helen Loomes, Business Development Director, International Sales at TRILUX Lighting Ltd
- Ourania Georgoutsakou, Secretary General of LightingEurop
- John Gorse, Technical Solutions Manager at Signify
- Dave Tilley, Independent Business Owner at Lightology
- Kevan Shaw, Design Director at KSLD EFLA Lighting Design
- Nigel Harvey, CEO at Recolight.
The goal of the discussion was to address steps needed to promote sustainability and a circular economy in the lighting industry and to combat the growing climate emergency.
Helen Loomes started the discussion by presenting graphs and data to give perspective on their findings they drew from case studies. Below are some of the slides she presented that help introduce the viewer to what the general idea and goals of sustainability in lighting look like.
The discussion focused on getting sustainability into the minds of consumers. The panel emphasized simplicity for educating the market in order for people to have the ability to understand the importance of sustainability. Currently, the awareness of the possibility of a circular economy and benefits of it are not widespread amongst customers and end users. The current business model and market is still centered around price and ROI for LEDs in the eyes of consumers. Consumers must be aware and interested in sustainability in order for the products and business models to change in the industry.
There was much discussion as to what a new business model could look like. Helen Loomes suggested a model where companies essentially rent out luminaires for projects and they retain the control of monitoring data like failure rate and other information and make informed decisions that implement sustainability when changes are needed. Others suggested models that focused more on contractors and specialists that would keep sustainability at the forefront of their solutions. John Gorse of Signify explained that Signify has taken steps to rework their business model to not focus on just product manufacturing, but environmentalism and the circular economy as well.
Towards the end of the discussion, Nigel Harvey, CEO of Recolight, made the case for recyclability and replaceability of luminaires. Replaceability provides space for innovation and drives the developing technology to improve longevity. All of these things play a part in achieving a circular economy. At a later date, Recolight will upload a recording of this webinar; click here to view past webinars on the same topic of a circular economy.