Circular Economy and Emergency Lighting

In October 2021, CIBSE TM66 was published. This technical memorandum is a guidance document on how lighting products – luminaires – should be assessed in terms of their circular economy credentials. It includes a checklist, a method of assessing a product’s circular economy performance and real-world examples of good practice.
 
Bolstering this, the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering (MEP) sector within construction – in which many lighting products are sold – also has CIBSE guidance; TM65. TM65 is a methodology for assessing embodied carbon of products linked to MEP systems. Increasingly, projects where lighting is installed are seeing requests to assess products in this, by using this framework.
 
Other means of assessment also exist, such as the ‘cradle to cradle’ methodology. This approach ensures that solutions are designed and produced in such a way that, as they reach the end of their lifetime, they can be truly recycled. This means everything is either recycled or returned to the earth.
 
By adopting this methodology, the design and production of luminaires should allow for upcycling at the end of their life.

Emergency lighting is currently not well catered for within these methodologies. Emergency luminaries have several unique characteristics that can potentially influence their circular economy credentials that are not currently covered in the guidance. These include:
 

• The embodied carbon associated with the choice of battery chemistry
• Recyclability of different battery chemistries
• Charging cycle characteristics and different energy consumption levels that are associated with these
• The efficiency of different types of charging circuitry
• Modularity in design, to allow the re-use of components such as optics, drivers, and luminaire housings
• Optical designs that allow increased spacings between emergency luminaires to achieve compliance, thus minimising the embodied carbon in a building. 

Automatic and remote monitored emergency test systems also exist that can help to avoid unnecessary labour travelling to/from sites to carry out manual tests. This can also help to reduce the embodied carbon associated with emergency lighting installations, whilst at the same time ensuring safety compliance.
 

In summary, at Mackwell we believe there is huge scope for developing specific, holistic methods of assessing emergency lighting installations, products, and test systems to achieve optimal circularity and net-zero installations. Only by testing these systems can we see the gaps in circularity and develop contingencies to fix these gaps.
 
This will allow the lighting industry, and more specifically the emergency lighting sector, to continue to play its role in reaching the net-zero goal agreed at COP26.