Green Switch for cities

What Green Switch can do for your city

Signify’s Green Switch program has been designed to help local authorities in consulting, auditing, and exploring funding and financing opportunities for advanced lighting solutions that make public lighting more energy-efficient and create cities that are fit for the future.

Our systems experts offer the deep knowledge and experience needed to coordinate the installation, commissioning, and operation of connected LED lighting systems specifically designed for cities. Since 2020, Signify has completed over 37,000 projects across the globe, helping over 10,000 local authorities to switch their lighting systems from conventional to connected LED.

Achieve your targets with Green Switch

Municipalities are on the front line of climate action. Cities use around 78% of the world’s energy, accounting for more than 60% of its greenhouse gas emissions. Lighting accounts for around 17% of energy usage in schools and 16% of hospitals’ energy costs.

Street lighting alone can use up to 40% of a municipality’s electricity budget, but public lighting isn’t just about external spaces. The municipal indoor environment is equally important, and public buildings are a crucial part of current decarbonization initiatives.

Decarbonization initiatives around the world

In the EU, for example, the new Energy Efficiency Directive seeks to make all new public buildings zeroemission by 2027. The European Commission also introduced a legally binding annual energy consumption reduction target of 1.9% for the entire public sector and expanded its annual buildings renovation obligation to all levels of public administration.

In the US, for example, the 179D tax deduction of $5.00 per square foot can be applied to federal, state, or local government properties for installing qualified systems in buildings, including lighting.

Over the coming decades, city economic development plans must align with a shared social and environmental vision and exploit all possibilities for reducing energy use. Making the Green Switch from conventional lighting to connected LED lighting should be a part of this vision.

How much can making the Green Switch save annually?

For a town of 200,000 people

13 GWh in public outdoor lighting
23 GWh in lighting for public buildings
8.3 tCO₂

For a city of 1.5 million people

80 GWh in public outdoor lighting
140 GWh in lighting for public buildings
51 tCO₂

For a city with 6,000 conventional street lights

1.7 GWh by switching to LED
3.4 GWh by moving to connected LED

Funding and financing opportunities

Government funding is being made available around the world to help local authorities achieve their carbon emissions reduction goals, through programs such as the EU Green Deal, the US Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the New China Infrastructure Plan.

Additional funding may also be available through blended finance initiatives, including publicprivate partnerships. Signify offers Light-as-aService (LaaS), which can help spur renovation by removing initial investment barriers.

Reach out to a Signify expert to learn more

Building truly sustainable cities

A city’s buildings, streets, parks, healthcare facilities, sports campuses, and more provide a huge scope for decarbonization. Connected LED lighting is a perfect backbone and underpinning network for smart city applications that can bring benefits in sustainability, energy efficiency, improving citizen quality of life, and climate action. Learn about creating truly sustainable cities in this white paper from Smart Cities World

Download the SCW whitepaper to learn more

Listen to the audio version of the whitepaper

To discover more, catch up on the recent webinar where Signify’s Harry Verhaar, and World Green Building Councils Stephen Richardson discussed with Smart Cities World about Technologies and policies to accelerate the decarbonisation of the built environment

Watch the webinar

Discover what Signify can do for your city

Bratislava smart lighting

New advanced LED street lighting technology from Signify will significantly reduce Bratislava's carbon footprint by 672 tons of CO2 per year.

Read the article
Düsseldorf smart lighting

3,000 public light points have been added to the Interact system as part of Düsseldorf's push to become climate-neutral by 2035 and develop into a smart city.

Read the article

Reach out to a Signify expert

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Signify estimates are based on numerous sources, references, and data points

Learn more about our calculation model and references

For more details about Signify’s commitments and results, read our annual report and sustainability supplements