Given the measures that have been implemented little by little to care for the planet, the company Lamp has a strategy for the implementation of sustainable development in the manufacture of lighting, a fundamental requirement for the conservation of the environment and the health of people, especially in work and educational environments. For this reason, we had the opportunity to talk with Raquel Quevedo Roldán, marketing director of Lamp.
Raquel, tell us regarding the initiatives and activities related to health, sustainability and the circular economy that you do in Lamp.
All the actions you mentioned are developed in Worktitude for Life and Worktitude for Wellbeing, which is the sustainability part, and they end up intertwining with each other. We develop these wellness actions and incorporate new circadian cycle technologies in which we combine visual and acoustic comfort. We also promote the dissemination part in both lines. We recently participated in the Wellference with a theme that revolves around how sustainable development objectives are linked to WELL certifications.
Another dissemination action we will participate in a fair in Madrid between March 28-30 called Rebuild, which is guided by three axes: digitization, sustainability and industrialized architecture, which tries to accompany the change that architecture and construction must undergo because it is one of the the most polluting industries.
We also do a lot of work to have evidence, certificates and data that support this, doing life cycle analyzes of products and environmental declarations.
How have you landed on the subject to discuss it with clients, users, that it be a real application in the project?
The first is the disclosure part and it is very important so that customers know what to ask for; there is a lot of ignorance regarding it and normally, although customers ask for a sustainable lighting solution, you must explain to them that the greatest impact of a luminaire is in its use phase and, for this, the main thing is good energy efficiency to consume less energy and that the durability of the luminaire is greater.
On the one hand, it is explaining and understanding the impacts that luminaires have and, on the other hand, doing product life cycle analysis allows us to make good decisions regarding how to improve products, because we realize where to have a greater impact.
We also try to give information to clients so they can read it and assess the impact. We always try to provide carbon footprint information through product declarations posted on the web. It is also important to take action not only on the product, but also on how we do it, for example, what kind of energy is used in the factories. The fact of having installed solar panels allows us a self-consumption of approximately 40%.
How has the public response been?
I feel that there is a spectacular response from customers because everyone needs to implement these types of solutions. Many times there is a lot of ignorance, everyone talks regarding it, but finding grounded solutions is very difficult. The public welcomes the message very well and asks more and more regarding the subject. Even people who were not our clients have come looking for us since there are not so many answers on the ground. I would say that at the industry level the concept still needs to mature because there are still no clear standards, but the transformation of circularity in architecture and construction benefits from this change, which is necessary and should become a trend.
In the lighting industry they are taking real leadership with this information. What actions do you think should be done in lighting to guarantee a change?
When LED lighting first appeared it was thought to be the absolute solution because it was energy efficient, no mercury was used in its manufacture and it was a sustainable solution in its own right. At that time, in lighting they stopped doing things because they thought that the LED was everything, we stopped because we were already satisfied, but the reality is that bad practices began to be done, the most common thing is that if the light fails you luminaire, you throw it away and put a new one on because it will last you many years and we repeat the process. Today we know that this cannot be the case, in fact, we in Chile and Barcelona technologically update luminaires installed 10 years ago. When we change luminaires to convert it to LED, we think more regarding updating than replacing.
What are the challenges to face for the change that Lamp proposes?
Part of our job is to improve ourselves as a company, but also in the world we live in today we have to support each other and sharing these kinds of experiences makes the industry evolve through success stories. The change we are proposing obviously cannot be done by ourselves: we must do it hand in hand with suppliers, customers and even the competition. One of the most profound changes that are made to products is materiality, since you must change the design to make them compatible with certain types of materials that, most of the time, are recycled; the material must meet certain requirements while the design must be strictly compatible with the purpose that the aesthetic presentation is not compromised in any way.
