Sustainability by design: LEDVANCE and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich design a more sustainable future 

At LEDVANCE, we are dedicated to projecting our passion for sustainable light into the world. To do this, we are actively supporting various projects – such as a recent collaboration with students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.  

How to get young people excited about sustainable lighting: a special design project with students   

Starting in early 2023, LEDVANCE has been working on a student project with 31 students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich to create designs for luminaires. The aim is to develop sustainable luminaires that comply with the upcoming EU regulations. The use of energy-efficient products that are oriented towards the basic idea of the circular economy is a key feature of this cooperation. Therefore, LEDVANCE supports the project with LED luminaires from our current product portfolio and assists the students as a technical advisor in the correct application of energy-efficient LED products. 

A look inside the project 

To kick off the collaboration, Prof. Urs Greutmann and artistic collaborator Magdalena Huesgen, along with the students, visited LEDVANCE to present the aims of their project and gain a first impression of our products. The program included a short introduction and presentation about LEDVANCE by Ulrich Weiss, responsible for our research and development, as well as an overview of the academy’s previous projects by Magdalena Huesgen. Armin Konrad, responsible for standards and regulation, then presented the ideas and framework conditions of the European Commission for a circular economy. Jürgen Oser, Product Manager for Light Sources and Drivers, then used prototypes and examples to show how LEDVANCE is already incorporating these ideas into its products. 

At the request of Prof. Greutmann, Dieter Lang, an expert in research and development, also gave some background information on the topic of Human Centric Lighting. After a short lunch break with pizza for all present, the event continued with a visit to the Show:Lab. Here, the group was accompanied by our product managers, Lea Paucksch and Carmen Stockerl, who showcased their products and thus gave the students the opportunity to get an idea of our products as well as the current lighting trends.  

After this initial meeting, the students are now working on conceptualising their design ideas. Over the upcoming months, more meetings are scheduled to discuss the next steps in implementing the most promising concepts. We look forward to updating you on the progress of the project soon. 

Our take on product sustainability by design

At LEDVANCE, we are gearing product development towards sustainability by expanding the share of sustainable products in our portfolio that contribute to all three levels of the “triple impact”: energy and cost efficiency, health and well-being, and circularity. Let us give you a little overview of the three levels and explain what each means to you.  
Product design for energy and cost efficiency 
The lighting industry is on a clear path towards LEDs. This “LEDification” involves a transition from previous technologies to LED to increase energy and cost efficiency. 
The energy efficiencies of “LEDification” are generated by the fact that today, LEDs are much more sustainable than traditional lightbulbs. Due to various optimizations of technology and design, LEDVANCE LEDs today meet energy class A – the most energy-efficient class of devices. At LEDVANCE, we are committed to further “LEDifying” our business by converting our entire portfolio to LED products.  
Product design for health and well-being 
Product design can also contribute to people’s health and well-being. In our daily lives, light has an impact on important hormones that in turn affect blood pressure, heart rate, vitality, memory, and mood. People spend most of their time indoors, especially during the working day and in the colder months, so providing the right type of light at the right time can help people be active and alert during the day and relax and sleep well at night.  

Human Centric Lighting (HCL) plays a vital role in this context. By optimizing brightness, light colour, and spectral composition to simulate natural daylight, HCL improves people's health and well-being. This new way of thinking about lighting is therefore a key area of innovation at LEDVANCE. We now have a range of HCL products catering to both residential and professional customers, and in 2020, we became the first company to receive VDE certification for an HCL product. 

Product design for circularity 

At LEDVANCE, we aim to manage our products effectively across the entire product life cycle. In 2022, we published a white paper analysing the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data for luminaires. From this, we were able to identify the biggest environmental impacts throughout the entire product life cycle. We found that improvements can be made by using luminaires with a circular design, allowing the replacement of the driver and light source, and extending the lifetime of the luminaire. 

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. We tackled this challenge – and today, EVERLOOP by LEDVANCE enables convenient interchangeability of light sources and control gear for LED luminaires, making them truly circular. This not only helps to save resources and thus protect the climate, but also directly benefits end users by reducing costs. 

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