PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY

The strategic focus of product development at LEDVANCE, which has sustainability at its core, ensures our products continue to deliver in terms of efficiency, health and wellbeing, circularity, and product quality and safety.

DESIGN FOR ENERGY AND COST EFFICIENCY

As previously mentioned, in the past, the lighting industry has focused on energy efficiency, i. e. transitioning from previous technologies to LED, which has brought about significant improvements in this area. At LEDVANCE, we are committed to further ‘LEDifying’ our business by converting our entire portfolio to LED products. In 2017, we largely relied on traditional lamp technology which accounted for 50 percent of our turnover. Our commitment to sustainability, innovation and efficiency enabled us to generate up to 70 percent of our turnover with advanced LED and luminaires in 2022. The energy efficiencies of LEDification are generated by the fact that today, LEDs are much more sustainable than traditional lightbulbs, as the infographic on the right shows. Connected systems, through smart, wireless technology are the next frontier for the lighting industry to improve energy and cost efficiency. This ‘space efficiency’, as it is also known, contributes to a more efficient use of lighting as the infobox on the benefits of smart lighting explains

BIOLUX

Our new intelligent BIOLUX Control Unit, for professional customers, allows users to adjust the light to different working conditions – RELAX, CREATE, NATURAL, FOCUS and BOOST. As well as becoming the first company to receive the VDE quality certificate for our BIOLUX Control Unit, we also won the German Innovation Award 2020 in the B2B ‘Lighting Solutions’ category for the system.
 

SUN@HOME

For residential customers, our SUN@HOME products are designed to offer a wider range of colors than conventional LEDs (2,200 to 5,000 Kelvin). They can be easily integrated into existing home networks and help people balance their lighting with their individual daily rhythm, to suit their preference, routine or even the weather

MODULAR DESIGN FOR CIRCULARITY

In 2022, we conducted a Life Cycle Assessment to help identify hotspots and focus our sustainability efforts accordingly, as we explain in more detail on the following page. The first hotspot found is the ‘use’ phase, which dominates in terms of impact. Therefore, product design and optimization of our current product portfolio are key to extending the product life cycle through design.
The second hotspot is in manufacturing. All production at LEDVANCE in the last year was outsourced, which is why we are therefore currently focusing on developing our supply chain management (see Compliance at LEDVANCE).
Our third focus area is the ‘end-of-life’ phase. We strive to increasingly recycle the material in our products and use post-consumer recycled material in the creation of new products.

PEP Ecopassport is the standard for product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and we recently completed a pilot, conducting LCA PSR0014 (product-specific rules for luminaires set by the P.E.P. Association) for some of our products. The results are currently being assessed to evaluate how the products will transition from innovation to product management.
Our preliminary conclusions are that:
  • Energy efficiency in the ‘use’ phase is the single most effective way to reduce the environmental impact of luminaires as we continue to strive for the highest luminous efficacy.
  • Use of light management functions has the highest potential to improve energy efficiency (45 percent potential) in the ‘use’ phase. However, it is important to note that these are only considered in the PEP if the functionality is integrated in the luminaire.
  • Extending the luminaire lifetime, and enabling the replacement of drivers and light engines, can greatly reduce the impact in terms of the depletion of natural resources.
Circular product design for luminaires is currently being implemented, based on EU circular product rules in the Ecodesign Directive. We are focusing on modular product design, with product prototypes currently available and being tested with key account customers. For example, our new EVERLOOP product is our first circular product design for luminaires.

Originally, incandescent lamps, with average lifespans of around 1,000 hours, were always replaceable. However, since LEDs last much longer today, they have mostly been designed without being serviceable or upgradeable, with the whole units having to be replaced. Now, developed based on the Single Lighting Regulation (SLR), a product-specific part of the EU Ecodesign Directive, EVERLOOP by LEDVANCE enables convenient interchangeability of light sources and control gear for LED luminaires – making them truly circular. This goes above and beyond legislative requirements, which do not yet require interchangeability. EVERLOOP prototypes were presented to the market in 2022 at the Light + Building trade fair.

PRODUCT QUALITY AND SAFETY

LEDVANCE as a brand is synonymous with innovative, tailor-made, high-quality and reliable products and solutions. To continue meeting these requirements while product complexity is increasing and product development cycles are shrinking, we rely on our ‘Quality First’ culture. By offering reliable products, prompt delivery and dependable support, we aim to satisfy our customers’ high expectations. To do this, we are focusing on comprehensively enhancing preventive quality management throughout LEDVANCE. This can only be effective if quality management and consistent attention to quality permeate all processes throughout a product’s life cycle, from the original idea until it is eventually phased out.
Health and safety manuals are delivered to customers with all our products, as required by laws and standards for electrical products. These manuals explain how to safely install LEDVANCE products, with images and text. Internally, the product health and safety awareness program at LEDVANCE helps our employees understand that there is a rigorous process in place to ensure that the highest quality standards are met from the very start of developing a new product.

browse related topics