Economist Impact: Decarbonising Industry

January 22, 2023

At Signify, we believe that technological and business model innovation can play a vital role in industrial energy efficiency. With out commitment to innovation, we have reinvested 4.8% of annual sales into R&D, entered into more than 100 partnerships with universities, and filed 17,750 patents.

Our LED lighting systems can increase the energy efficiency of buildings and infrastructure, while our connected LED lighting can serve as a platform for smart technologies that can increase operational efficiencies. We created the Green Switch program to help industries leverage the potential of our innovative technologies and maximize the impact of available funding for sustainable development.

Green Switch has been designed to guide companies through the process of obtaining financing while also specifying the appropriate lighting products, systems and services to help them to meet sustainability goals. From port and rail operators to logistics and manufacturing giants our partner companies are already realizing huge benefits in energy efficiency, reduced carbon emissions, and cost savings.

Serving nearly 6,000 customers in 19 countries, Prologis is the world’s largest industrial landlord, with around 2.5% of global GDP passing through its warehouses. Partnering with Signify, Prologis created LED Essentials, an innovative service that offers tenants in 12 European countries energy-efficient lighting.

Prologis relied on Signify to deliver project design and a turnkey solution, and to manage the project and the product supply chain. Signify’s international footprint meant that it could deliver a consistent experience for Prologis’s international clients. Within four years of the launch of LED Essentials, 6.4 million sq meters of space had been converted to LED lighting, more than 90% of the Prologis portfolio where the service is offered.

As Mark Zulver, senior vice president and head of Prologis Essentials Europe, points out, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments are now critical for customers, their employees, and investors. LED Essentials is helping Prologis and its customers deliver on those commitments and on multiple fronts.

The explosive growth of e-commerce has created ever-increasing demand for logistics and fulfillment centers. It has also made them more visible and has created greater concern about their energy performance and the working environment they offer.

All the LED lights installed as part of the LED Essentials program are equipped with sensors, enabling the system to support operational optimization projects. Prologis is also investigating ways to extend the program and retrofit customer warehouses that the company does not own.

DHL’s “warehouse of the future” in Columbus, Ohio, is another example of how innovation can help with industrial energy efficiency. DHL turned to Signify to design and install a smart lighting system at its 31,400 sq meter facility.

Using Signify’s Interact connected lighting system, DHL can now adjust lighting to meet the specific requirements of each functional area in the warehouse. The controllable lighting creates a safer, more pleasing environment for its workforce. DHL is also on track to save 1 m kWh of electricity per year—a cost saving more than double its initial expectation. In addition, DHL is targeting longer-term benefits from asset tracking and lower maintenance costs.

Pilkington, one of the world’s largest glass suppliers, is another user of Interact. Its new automotive glass warehouse in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, measures 47,000 sq meters. Pilkington uses Interact to manage more than 1,300 luminaires throughout the facility.

The energy efficiency gains were substantial. The new warehouse uses up to 50% less energy than comparable sites with conventional lighting systems.

Industrial lighting is not just restricted to buildings. Transportation infrastructure is often burdened with energy-inefficient legacy lighting systems. The energy demand of those systems can be slashed by retrofitting them with more energy-efficient technology.

The Dublin Port Tunnel in Ireland replaced 1,800 sodium lamps with Signify’s energy-efficient LED lighting. The overhaul instantly resulted in a 60% reduction in electricity usage, equivalent to the annual consumption of 300 Irish households, and promises to deliver €4m in cost savings over the coming five years.