Signify, formerly Philips Lighting, is a multinational lighting corporation producing and selling electric lights and lighting fixtures that are installed all over the world. Signify employs almost 40,000 employees and has production facilities in over 70 countries.
Besides selling lighting equipment, Signify also offers ‘lighting-as-a-service’ (LaaS) to its commercial and public sector customers. Under an LaaS contract, Signify installs, operates and maintains the lighting systems while the customers pay a monthly service fee for light.
Additionally, the luminaires and other lighting fixes that Signify uses under the LaaS contract, are specifically designed for easy repair and replacement while in operation; and can be easily reused or recycled once each use phase is over.
What makes it circular?
Signify’s circular lighting is a completely new approach to lighting where the capital expense of buying equipment is replaced by monthly payments for performance.
The ownership of the lighting systems is retained by Signify, who instead typically offer a 5-yr performance contract that is underpinned by a set of KPIs, such as light level, uptime and energy savings. At the end of the contract, the client can choose to extend the contract or return the lighting equipment to Signify, for reusereuseThe repeated use of a product or component for its intended purpose without significant modification. or recycling.
Under the LaaS business model, Signify is incentivized to manufacture high-quality, durable and modular equipment, which circulates in use for much longer, thus conserving the resources that are used in production. Furthermore, because the lights are professionally managed often with artificial intelligence and internet of things, the system is run more efficiently, leading to significant energy savings.
Benefits
Businesses do not have to pay upfront capital costs for lighting equipment
Signify’s ‘circular’ luminaires last 75% longer than conventional equipment
In Schipol airport, LaaS reduced energy consumption by 50% compared to the previous system.
The National Union of Students UK, achieved an installed light electrical load of 5.9W/m2 (compared to 8 - 12 W/m2 industry average) through the adoption of a pay-per-lux model, leading to significant energy and emissions reduction.
Lighting the world in a low-carbon future
Lighting uses approximately 15% of global electricity demand and generates 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, 1.2 billion people still do not have access to modern energy services.
Reliable and affordable lighting systems are a fundamental prerequisite for safe cities, education and quality of life. But the expansion of modern lighting must be balanced against the need to reduce per capita electricity demand and conserve resources to fulfil our carbon reduction targets.
Riding on the success of the LED lighting revolution, the wider scale adoption of lighting-as-a-service business models, particularly in public-spaces and commercial or industrial installations, will help provide light to those in need, while avoiding high volumes of waste and greenhouse gas emissions.
1.2 billion people do not have access to modern lighting services
