Lighting design practice 18 Degrees has donated £40,000 worth of downlights to industry reuse initiative Donate-A-Light.
The contribution is the biggest to date for the recently-formed organisation which says it could help re-light hundreds of hospices, care homes and community projects.
Whitecroft lighting says it will help collect all 4,000 downlights, using their reusable Geopak packaging platform, pictured, to safely transport them to Donate-A-Light’s facility in Manchester.
Donate-A-Light is an initiative by lighting executive Dave Fear who set it up earlier this year to match surplus lighting stock from manufacturers, suppliers and contractors with recipients.
The latter includes organisations that can’t afford to purchase new lighting.
The organisation conducts site surveys, builds asset registers and forecasts potential energy-savings.
Donate-A-Light is looking for corporate funding to fuel its growth and allow it to roll out nationally.
It also wants 12 months’ free warehousing, preferably in the northwest of the UK, to that it can accept larger donations, including CAT A fit-out returns.
Finally it is requesting transport and logistics support to assist with product collections from donors and deliveries to charities across the UK.
Reuse of used luminaires is also under consideration. ‘Ideally, we want to re-purpose, refurbish and upcycle any luminaires that are currently installed,’ says the organisation. ‘B ut to do this we’ll need help from lighting companies who can help refurbish products free of charge or donate retrofit gear trays, or components.
‘Inevitably there will be some waste items that need recycling. If there’s a waste or re-cycling firm who can help us for free, with one of our projects in your local area, then we’d love to hear from them.’
Dave Fear is a former technical director at Siteco and Selux UK. Fear has also worked for Thorn, Osram, GE and Current. Trustees of Donate-A-Light include former Moorlite executives Phil Myles and John Hartman and former Osram and GE manager Gary Ingham.
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