CIBSE and LIA set up new Circular Economy Assurance Scheme
(UK) – The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and the Lighting Industry Association (LIA) have together launched a new circular economy assurance scheme designed to support the accuracy of circular economy claims from lighting manufacturers and specifiers. The TM66 Circular Economy Assured scheme will provide a quality mark for the design and manufacture of lighting products.
Supporting the recently published TM66 Creating a circular economy in the lighting industry and accompanying Circular Economy Assessment Methods (CEAM), the scheme forms part of this toolkit for manufacturers and specifiers to assess the circular economy credentials of products.
Published in 2021, the award-winning TM66 Creating a circular economy in the lighting industry is the result of cross-industry collaboration, providing practical guidance and tools to enable the sector to deliver a circular, sustainable approach to lighting and building services engineering more broadly.
Major specifiers and organisations have already adopted this metric and the intention is to develop it beyond lighting products, for application in other areas of building services engineering. Manufacturers are already rating their luminaires, while others are seeking assistance to do so with a shared ambition to ensure credibility, objectivity, and consistency in their ratings.
David Barnwell, Managing Director of Holophane Europe Ltd. commented: “Anything that helps to drive greater knowledge of the environmental benefits of a circular economy approach is a positive step forwards and being able to specify a minimum rating in line with industry accepted guidance strengthens the delivery of sustainable lighting through the supply chain. The TM66 Circular Economy Assured scheme provides participating manufacturers with a way to demonstrate their sustainability and provides a clear differentiation from unsubstantiated greenwash.”
This scheme combines CIBSE’s deep sustainability knowledge and UKAS accredited certification expertise with the LIA’s Quality Assurance systems and independent UKAS accredited laboratory.
Society of Light and Lighting President Ruth Kelly Waskett said: “Sustainability is at the heart of good lighting practice, but our focus is now shifting from energy efficiency in use towards whole life carbon and the life cycle of materials. TM66 and CEAM have already given us a framework within which to evaluate products and equip us to make the right specification decisions. TM66 Circular Economy Assured takes us one step further, giving us the added benefit of knowing that circular economy claims are robust and comparable between products. This allows decisions to be made at the specification stage and then protected through any value engineering process.”
Terry Dean, LIA President added: “The lighting industry has long been a key solution to delivering net zero, but many recognise that we will soon be asked to prove and improve all aspects of our environmental impact. Moving away from the unsustainable linear economy of take, make, waste, to a circular economy where we conserve, value and extend the life of the resources in our luminaires is the next step. We are delighted to build this partnership with CIBSE, led by Bob Bohannon, the LIA’s Head of Policy and Academy who was TM66 and CEAM’s lead author. It brings our two organisation’s key strengths together to deliver this much asked for level playing field in sustainability ratings.”
