As awareness of our carbon footprint grows, the lighting industry is increasingly focused on the full life cycle of products, from raw material extraction through manufacture to end-of-life disposal. Reducing waste and prolonging the life of lighting products are key strategies for minimising environmental impact. By extending product longevity, we can significantly reduce waste generation.
TM65 is a Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) publication that offers a high-level methodology to calculate the embodied carbon of a product or service throughout its life cycle. When an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is unavailable, TM65 provides engineers with an alternative tool for assessing the carbon footprint.
Shifting towards a circular economy involves optimising resource use by increasing the duration of a product's useful life and ensuring that when a product reaches the end of its life, its resources are reused productively, creating further value. This transition requires changes across value chains, including product design, new business models, innovative ways of turning waste into resources, and changes in consumer behaviour.
CIBSE’s Technical Memorandum 66 (TM66), first published by the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) in 2021, has also gained significant momentum. TM66 provides a framework for action and assessment in the lighting industry, further promoting circular economy principles. This structured approach encourages manufacturers to integrate circular design principles, focusing on longevity, quality, and repairability.
TM66’s rating system allows manufacturers to transparently declare their circular economy performance, helping to prevent greenwashing and ensuring that luminaires are marketed with credible data. This empowers specifiers to make informed choices, selecting fittings with strong circularity credentials. The dual benefit of TM66 serves both specifiers and manufacturers, ensuring robust environmental credentials and potentially making value engineering more challenging for speculative suppliers.
The building industry faces the dual challenges of environmental degradation and economic inefficiency. TM66 provides a solution by highlighting the importance of sustainability beyond energy efficiency, emphasising longevity, quality, and repairability. Leading manufacturers are now adopting these principles, driven by the need to create products that last longer and can be repaired or upgraded.
How iWarranty Supports Sustainability
iWarranty, an award-winning digital warranty management platform, aids light manufacturers in achieving their sustainability goals. By simplifying warranty management and enhancing the after-sale customer experience, iWarranty uses AI-powered warranties and blockchain-enabled product lifecycle management to make warranty management data-driven, cost-effective, profitable, and sustainable for manufacturers, retailers and consumers throughout its life cycle.
The adoption of TM65 and TM66 is crucial for the lighting industry as it transitions towards a circular economy. These standards provide a framework for assessing and improving the environmental impact of lighting products, ensuring longevity, quality, and repairability. By embracing these principles, the industry can reduce waste, lower carbon footprints, and create a more sustainable future.
For more information on TM65 and TM66, you can visit the official CIBSE website. To explore how iWarranty can support your sustainability goals, check out their platform for a comprehensive solution to warranty management and get in touch with our team: juan@iwarranty.co