Output details

Integration of eco-design tools into the development of eco-lighting products

This paper offers a generic methodology to significantly reduce the environmental impact of lighting products throughout their life-cycle (design, manufacture, use and end of service life). The paper demonstrates how to assimilate different eco-design tools, which are normally used disparately at different stages of the life cycle, in an integrated manner during the design process, thereby shifting the sustainability thinking and simulations to the early stages of design.

Normal methods for design of lighting products already exist within the sector, but building eco-design constraints into the design process is a challenging task. This paper offers for the first time the integration of eco-design tools into the total-design process. This process significantly improves the sustainability of the eventual products, as quantified within the paper.

This methodology has been developed and refined through several years of research and subsequently applied in three funded EU research projects to enhance the output from these projects: (i) myEcoCost (grant No. 308530); (ii) cycled (grant No. 282793); and (iii) Ecolights (grant No. ECO/11/304409). Su is a key member of all three projects. During these projects, the methodology has been continuously improved and enhanced in an iterative fashion.

The European Commission DG Environment News Alert 'Science for Environment Policy'(Issue 341, 12 Sept. 2013) featured this research, highlighting that ‘this study provides an excellent example of effective use of eco-design tools in the lighting sector’.