CIRCULAR & SUSTAINABLE JARGON BUSTER

The adoption of the Circular Economy for truly sustainable lighting has seen the introduction of many new metrics, regulations, standards, and assessment methods.
The Recolight jargon buster aims to help demystify these for you. Links are included for more information.
If you think there is anything missing, or an update is needed, please get in touch. 

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circular lighting jargon buster

All things sustainable & circular for lighting

Where they’re used
Global | European Union | United Kingdom

BS 8887 Remanufacturing | British Standards for the process of remanufacture.

BS 8887-220:2010 – Design for manufacture, assembly, disassembly, and end-of-life processing (MADE).

BS 8887-220 specifies requirements for the process of remanufacture.

A proposed new part of the BS 8887 series specifies the process of remanufacturing luminaires. It emphasises the need for a remanufactured luminaire to be supported by robust technical documentation, testing and compliance assessment.

It lists the steps required to change a used product into an as-new product, with at least equivalent performance and warranty of a comparable new replacement product. This remanufacturing process can include parts or components to be used in subsequent assembly.

UK Standard for remanufacturing

BS8887 process flowchart
For reference only and does not necessarily reflect the data in the final document

BS8887 Code of practice for the remanufacture of luminaires has been made available for public comment on scope and purpose.
You have until 27 April ’23 to respond. Follow this link to learn more. British Standards Institution – Project (bsigroup.com)

European Standard for circular product design

BREEAM® is a suite of validation and certification systems for sustainable built environment.

The BREEAM® suite of schemes enables consistent and comparable assessment and verification across the entire built environment lifecycle.

Global building certification | Lifecycle

CBAM | Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

An EU’s initiative to reduce so-called ‘carbon leakage’ – i.e., companies based in the EU could move carbon-intensive production abroad to take advantage of lax standards, or EU products could be replaced by more carbon-intensive imports.

In 2020, the UK Government launched a consultation which proposed how the Carbon Emissions Tax would operate if it was introduced from 2023 and proposes how the tax might be developed.

EU Carbon Taxonomy

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

CEAM | Circular Economy Assessment Method of TM66 (see below)

For analysing and scoring the circular attributes of luminaires

Cradle to Cradle Certified® is a global standard for products that are safe, circular and responsibly made.

Carbon & Circularity | Global Standard 

CSRD | Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive
An EU ESG (environmental social governance) directive designed to make corporate sustainability reporting more common, consistent, and standardized like financial accounting and reporting.

EU Directive

DPP | Digital Product Passport – product-specific data set.

Providing information on the origin, composition, repair, and disassembly options of a product as well as how the various components can be recycled.

EU Directive

EcoVadis is an assessment process which evaluates the sustainability of a business and its supply chain.

Carbon Assessment

embodied carbon

Embodied Carbon

Embodied emissions are those that took place in the supply chain to manufacture, transport and install a product and all its components, as well as to dispose of it at the end of life.

Operational carbon emissions are related to energy and resource use during the product’s lifetime.

In lighting the operational emissions (~90%) massively outweigh embodied emission (~10%)
Lighting accounts for nearly 5% of global CO2 emissions1
1 Source: https://www.theclimategroup.org/led

Carbon Assessment

EPBD | Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is undergoing a recast and received the support of the European Parliament in a plenary vote on 14 March. It upgrades the existing regulatory framework to reflect higher ambitions and more pressing needs in climate and social action, while providing EU countries with the flexibility needed to take into account the differences in the building stock across Europe.

EU Life cycle assessment

EPD | Environmental Product Declaration is defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14025 as a Type III declaration that “quantifies environmental information on the life cycle of a product to enable comparisons between products fulfilling the same function.” The EPD methodology is based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool that follows ISO series 14040
It consists of two key documents:

  1. The underlying Life Cycle Assessment report: a systematic and comprehensive summary of the LCA project to support the third-party verifier when verifying the EPD. This report is not part of the public communication.
  2. Public EPD document that provides the LCA results and other EPD content.

Global Life cycle assessment

EPREL | European Product Registry for energy labelling

As of 1 January 2019, suppliers (manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives established in the EU) must register their products in the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling (EPREL). In May 2022, the database was launched for public access and consultation.

EPREL offers detailed information on models placed on the EU market by scanning the QR code featured on the new energy labels. The database provides information such as the luminous flux, colour temperature and cap type.

EU Regulation

ESPR | Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation
The proposal for a new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, published on 30 March 2022, is the cornerstone of the EU Commission’s approach to more environmentally sustainable and circular products. The proposal builds on the existing Ecodesign Directive, which currently only covers energy-related products.

30 new delegated acts expected to be developed by 2030 as part of ESPR

EU Regulation

ESG | Environmental, Social, and Governance reporting

In April 2022, the UK enacted two mandatory ESG disclosure laws. The new rules will ensure consumers and investors have access to information they need to assess risks arising from climate change and other sustainability issues. It will also create a culture of transparency regarding the impact companies have on people and the environment.

The Companies (Strategic Report) (Climate-related Financial Disclosure) Regulations 2022

The Limited Liability Partnerships (Climate-related Financial Disclosure) Regulations 2022.

Certain large companies within the EU must disclose ESG information under the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD).

EU  Legislation

& UK Legislation

EU Taxonomy 

A classification system that helps companies and investors identify “environmentally sustainable” economic activities to make sustainable investment decisions. Environmentally sustainable economic activities are described as those which “make a substantial contribution to at least one of the EU’s climate and environmental objectives, while at the same time not significantly harming any of these objectives and meeting minimum safeguards.

Under new EU rules, large, listed EU companies started in 2023 to report against the Taxonomy’s two climate objectives – climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. First reports from this year are also becoming available, which now also include information on the Taxonomy’s other four environmental objectives

Guidelines

Life Cycle AssessmentLCA | Life-cycle assessment

Methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. Environmental impacts are assessed from raw material extraction and processing (cradle), through the product’s manufacture, distribution and use, to the recycling or final disposal of the materials composing it (grave).

LCA is a framework standardised by ISO 14044

Global methodology

LCAs are provided by several consultants and are very comprehensive, but can be costly, especially if your company has a large portfolio of products to assess.

  • LCA’s will be expected with all new product designs.
  • If carbon is taxed, then the spotlight will be on quantifying and validating carbon emissions.
  • Likely to be adopted at European level as common assessment method.
whole life carbon assessment

LPC | Living Product Challenge

A framework that encourages manufacturers to create products that are healthy, inspiring and give more than they take across their life cycles.

Guidelines

PAS | Publicly Available Specification

Guidelines

PAS 2050 | Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services

PAS 2050 is the first consensus-based and internationally applicable standard on product carbon footprinting that has been used as the basis for the development of other standards internationally.

Standard

PCR | Product Category Rules provide the rules, requirements, and guidelines for developing an EPD for a specific product category.

Guidelines

PEPecopassport® PSR 0014, an international reference program for environmental declarations of products from electric, electronic and heating & cooling industries.

The association defines, in compliance with the ISO 14 025 requirements, the PEPecopassport® Program management process, with respect to professional ethics and transparency. Program currently supported by Lighting Europe

Environmental declaration methodology

PPT | Plastic Packaging Tax  – High embodied carbon assessments will result in higher taxation

UK Taxonomy

SPI | Sustainable products initiative

This initiative, which will revise the Ecodesign Directive and propose additional legislative measures as appropriate, aims to make products placed on the EU market more sustainable.

EU Legislation

TM65 Embodied carbon in building services

Method for calculating embodied carbon in building services. A dedicated lighting version is being written by CIBSE; SLL.

Embodied carbon is understood as the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) associated with the making of a product, its installation, its maintenance, repair, replacement, and then its end of life. It covers the whole life cycle, excluding operational aspects and the potential recovery, reuse or recycling of materials,

Environmental declaration  methodology

Life Cycle Assessments

TM66 | Quantified Circularity – Creating a circular economy in the lighting industry 

CIBSE and SLL Technical Memorandum for the lighting industry.

TM66 is a new Circular Economy Assessment Method, for designers, specifiers, and engineers, allowing the quick comparison of two or more lighting products.
It includes a new Circular Economy Assessment Method, designed to create an overall assessment of the circularity of a product on a 0-4 scale.

Circular Economy Assessment

WELL v2 | International WELL Building Institute

The WELL standard is currently focused on the promotion of good quality lighting, used in conjunction with natural daylight and the embodiment of state-of-the-art circadian principles.

Future drafts will include the demand for circular solutions, adding weight to products that have circular principles and/or are capable of being remanufactured in the future

Building Regulations

WLCA | Whole Life-Cycle Carbon Assessment

Whole Life-Cycle Carbon (WLC) emissions are the carbon emissions resulting from the materials, construction and the use of a building over its entire life, including its demolition and disposal. A WLC assessment provides a true picture of a building’s carbon impact on the environment.

Building Regulations

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