OUR PURPOSE
Reducing waste and developing better options.
LED fittings actually generate an unconscionable amount of waste despite being energy efficient. Not only are they costly but they are neither reusable nor recyclable. We better hope they do not break because there is no way to repair them. Most of them are wasted after only 5 years of use. Our aim is to develop better options based on Life Cycle Analysis.
THE METHOD BEHIND
Our Life Cycle Analysis: IMPACT World+
IMPACT World+ is a life cycle impact assessment method used to convert the inventoried inputs and outputs of the product system into four considered environmental impact indicators.
Based on four environmental indicators.
determined by the Canadian laboratoy CIRAIG
IMPACT 1
Human Health
Effects on the health of people
caused by
- climate change
- water use
- toxic substances
- substances that cause respiratory problems
- substances that generate ionizing radiations and deplete the ozone layer
IMPACT 2
Ecosystem Quality
Effects on biodiversity
caused by
- climate change
- marine acidification
- land use
- toxic substances
- substances that cause terrestrial and aquatic acidification, freshwater and
- marine eutrophication
IMPACT 3
Fossil and Nuclear Energy Use
Effects on energy density amount
The extend of fossil and nuclear energy resources depletion
caused by
their extraction
IMPACT 4
Mineral Resources Use
The extent of natural resources depletion
caused by
metals and minerals extraction
IMPROVEMENT
Reducing the environmental impacts.
Based on this analysis we determined criteria used in a rating system – the Lighting for Good Charter – which can be applied for any lighting apparel through our scorecard.
What is a LCA?
ABOUT THE METHOD
Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is a method to assess the potential environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life from-cradle-to-grave (i.e., from raw material extraction through material processing, manufacturing, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and end-of-life). To do so, it quantifies the inputs and outputs from all the processes involved in the life cycle of the product (making up the product system), relates them to a certain amount of the product’s function (e.g. providing 1000 lumen for 1000 hours), and converts those exchanges with the environment into environmental impact indicators (e.g. CO2 eq. for greenhouse gases), to obtain the environmental profile (series of indicator results) of the product. It is thus possible to quantitatively compare products with different technical performances on the same basis.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Reducing the usage of plastic and plant-based plastic to its minimum
Not all bio-based plastics are beneficial from an environmental standpoint. Some are even a worse alternative to fossil-based plastics depending on the type and origin of the biomass they are made from. Biomass production can indeed contribute to deforestation and/or significant loss of carbon already sequestred in the soil (hence net GHG emissions), to the degradation of ecosystems with high conservation value, to local risk of water and soil pollution from the use of agrochemical inputs.
Defining guidelines.
As a minimum, we consider that the following principles and criteria are mandatory requirements for a sustainable biomass sourcing:
– the land used for biomass production did not involve any deforestation;
– the biomass is cropped without any negative impacts on the biodiversity and ecosystems of sensitive lands with high conservation values;
– the risk of any indirect land use change caused by the biomass production shall be evaluated and minimized (e.g. this can appear when cropping the biomass is displacing land used for human food or animal feed that have to be cropped elsewhere as a consequence).
Mandatory certification.
Certification schemes covering these issues for biomass and bio-based materials exist (e.g. ISCC Plus, RSB, RSPO) and we foster our potential suppliers to qualify their products. Ideally, a bio-based plastic material should be using biomass originating from a by-product stream (e.g. a crop residue like straw, a by-product from food processing, a waste organic material). If any cropping is involved, it should not involved any land use change, key ecosystems damages, and be sourced at reasonable distance from the plant it will be processed first.
