Embracing the Circular economy: The role of Circularity index in product lifecycle
In our efforts to balance economic growth with environmental care, we have taken another step towards a circular economy. We evaluate how well our products follow its principles and compare their energy and material impact with those of other products.
That's why we assess our products using a Circularity Index, which indicates their level of circularity and sustainability and guiding customers towards energy-efficient and circular solutions.
The Circularity Index measures two things:
The product circularity score indicates how well our products fit into the circular economy based on our endless, effortless and wasteless principles.
The lifetime efficiency score compares the energy and material impact of our luminaire with a reference product in the market.
Through the Circularity index, we challenge ourselves to continuously enhance our products and achieve higher scores by exploring concepts to prolong the lifetime of the product, ease of maintenance, and maximal use of recycled and recyclable materials.
Each assessment is based on meticulously defined criteria, with each element assigned a specific weight. This weight shows the extent to which the component contributes to the overall score.
The product circularity score forms criteria in three categories:
- Endless, aimed at extending a product’s lifespan, is the category of properties that give an indication of the likelihood of a product being discarded because it can no longer fulfill its function sufficiently. In line with the circular economy principles, we give the highest weight to this category of criteria, i.e., 40%.
- Effortless, refers to the ease with which a product can be repaired, refurbished, or remanufactured. If these actions are easy and cheap to perform, the chance of them being re-used increases. This depends on the availability of information and spare parts, but also on the skills, tools and environment that is needed to perform a technical intervention.
In a circular economy we want to avoid having to throw away products that still can get a lifespan prolongation, even when they can be perfectly recycled. That is why we give a weight of 35% to the criteria underpinning our “effortless” category.
- When recycling is inevitable, it must be done in the most sustainable way possible. That is why we give our “Wasteless category” a weight of 25%. Our Wasteless score is therefore an indicator of the product’s material suitability for the circular economy. One of the criteria checks how much recycled content we have in the product.
The lifetime efficiency score compares the energy and material CO2 impact for production and 35.000 burning hours with a reference product on the market.
The Circularity Index not only represents our commitment to continuous improvement and high sustainability standards but also our determination to establish new benchmarks. In doing so, we aspire to lead our customers and the industry toward a future that is not only brighter but also more environmentally friendly.
