We commend Signify for their live press conference where they took questions from the worldwide press. Your humble editor asked three questions and all three were answered in detail. The answer to one question was extremely bold and we look forward to more clarification. There is no greener lighting company than Signify, and there is no large lighting company more transparent.
A few key notes:
- Signify is on track to meet the Paris Climate Accord goal six years early.
- On track to remove plastics from all consumer packages by 2021. This was a controversial decision internally. Signify feels that the new packaging is attractive, and it actually costs less than plastic.
- Signify has conducted pilots in ten US cities, reducing crime by 21%–more about this later.
- Signify has implemented stricter travel policies which encourages employees to find lower carbon travel.
- All employees are encouraged to look for opportunities to reduce carbon.
- Employees vote on off-setting carbon reductions.
- Women in leadership will double to 34%, see below.
- Signify is the first major lighting company to use 3D printing on scale in professional lighting.
- Lights for growing food can reduce water consumption up to 90%.
- UV-C Lighting can inactive viruses, including the one that causes COVID-19, in a matter of seconds.
Q&A (Editor’s Note: English is likely not the primary language of the speakers. Although their English was quite good, my questions and the quotes from the speakers have been slightly modified for readability.)
EdisonReport: I do not believe Tupelo, Mississippi offers renewable electricity, how does Signify get renewable energy to that plant?
Nicola Kimm, Head of Sustainability, Environment, Health & Safety: All of our sites run on renewable electricity in the Americas through our virtual renewable energy purchase agreement in Texas. Because of our investment in the virtual power agreement, all factories run on renewable electricity and the same goes for our eastern Europe operations with our virtual power purchase agreement in Poland. Poland, for example, represents 25% of our global electricity usage. Through these virtual power purchase agreements, we are able to cover our energy usages.
EdisonReport: With the increase of women in leadership increasing to 34%, will the majority of that increase come from internal employees, or will you go outside of the company?
Nicola Kimm: “The 34% figure is based on executives and in order to shape and promote our executives we need to develop the female talent pipeline and that means really investing in our employees. We have several programs focused on diversity to develop the talent pipeline. We aim to really develop people from within our company and that is the primary goal. Of course, the needs of our employees change, and we are changing more from a manufacturing company to a company that delivers system services where other skills are needed. So, we have a need to hire externally and get fresh talent outside.”
EdisonReport: Can you expand on the reduction in crime in ten US cities where you have installed your lights?
Original statement: “A pilot with ten US Cities has shown that we reduced street crime by 21% and reduced nighttime traffic accidents by 30% by having the right lighting.”
Original video statement: “Our lights can help cut crime rates by 21%”
Eric Rondolat, CEO: “It is not a study, it is actual numbers, coming from a survey that had been done in Los Angeles after we implemented our lighting systems. Basically, they realized that the lighting that was provided and also the connected lighting, which created a different type scenario during the night, was making the spaces feel more secure. It also allowed a better definition of facial identification and, at the end of the day, resulted in a 21% improvement in crime rates in that city, which is a typical number that we can take and reproduce in other environments.”
This is a very bold statement which can help the entire industry. We have reached out to the company to learn the details of these actual numbers and we will post a follow up story.