LightingEurope Calls for Renovation of Lighting Installations

“We can only agree with Vice-President Timmermans that we need “everyone in Europe to have a home they can light, heat, or cool without breaking the bank or breaking the planet”.  We regret that there is no clear reference to lighting in the main RW Communication published today by the Commission, in light of the benefits lighting can deliver not only in terms of energy savings but also in creating safe and quality indoor environments,” stated Ourania Georgoutsakou, Secretary General of LightingEurope. 

Europe’s lighting industry already has the innovative and energy efficient technologies and ready to install:

• Properly designed and well-coordinated lighting systems are one of the most cost-efficient ways to reduce energy consumption and CO2-emissions. The European Commission estimates that LED based lighting systems could save the EU up to 48-46 TWh of electricity annually by 2050.
• Better lighting is also one of the major factors impacting people’s wellbeing indoors - for example, students in a classroom with bright white lights score 14% higher than students working in a poorly lit one.
• UV-C is an established technology for disinfection that must be part of the design of safe healthy indoor spaces. UV-C disinfection technology has been proven to inactivate, without exception, all bacteria and viruses against which it has been tested and is broadly used today to disinfect water, air, and surfaces in industrial, commercial, medical, public and residential environments.

There cannot and should not be any renovation of buildings in Europe without upgrading the lighting installations. To grasp the full benefits of better lighting as part of the EU Renovation Wave, we recommendin particular:

• The use of LED lighting, in combination with controls and sensors;
• A full renovation of luminaires that include controls and sensors, with a minimum Smart ReadinessIndicator (SRI) level. The SRI should also be applied across Europe to maximize its potential for energy savings and a better indoor environment;
• The design of safe indoor spaces that includes the installation of UV-C disinfection technologies, as a means not only to address the current COVID-19 pandemic but also more generally and in the longer term to help ensure healthy indoor environments;
• The introduction of mandatory minimum requirements on Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ);
• Access to public financing should be subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions. An obligation to include lighting renovation to obtain full subsidy should be introduced.

For more details, read our position paper.

Contact
For further information on this topic, please contact
Ourania Georgoutsakou, Secretary General, ourania.georgoutsakou@lightingeurope.org.

About LightingEurope
LightingEurope is the voice of the lighting industry, based in Brussels and representing 33 companies and national associations. Together these members account for over 1,000 European companies,
a majority of which are small or medium-sized. They represent a total European workforce of over 100,000 people and an annual turnover exceeding 20 billion euro. LightingEurope is committed to promoting efficient lighting that benefits human comfort, safety and well-being, and the environment. LightingEurope advocates a positive business and regulatory environment to foster fair competition and growth for the European lighting industry.
More information is available at www.lightingeurope.org.