Circular Lighting Live 25 | Programme
Choose from eight carefully curated sessions
each of which focus on a critical aspect of circularity in lighting
These sessions have been designed to ensure relevance across the full supply chain,
from designers to manufacturers to facility managers.
New formats include the Just One Thing’ micro presentations which will focus on inspirational stories of sustainability in action and a Moonshot Panel tasked with exploring ambitious ideas will be complemented by expert discussions, keynote speakers and explainers on legislation, certification and more.
8:00 am to 9:00 am | Registration, coffee, and exhibition
Fenchurch and Lombard Suites
9.00am Welcome
SESSION 1: Climate driven design
Creative design – of products, projects and even processes – is the most powerful tool we as an industry have to mitigate the impact of lighting.
Lessons from Base Camp
What we can learn from sustainability practices on Mount Everest. Asela Rodrigo of Projlojik and architect Hamish Angus McAndrew, recently returned from Everest, shares the principles and practices which can inspire and inform our industry.
Designing with purpose: One maker’s journey
Decorative luminaire maker Spark & Bell puts sustainability and circular design at the heart of everything it does. It offers a free lifetime repair service, a 10-year warranty and plastic recycling. It’s one of only two companies in the lighting sector to achieve a B Corp score of over 100. Here founder Emer Gillespie shares the journey she and her team have been on.
Future Lights: Design for sustainable age
To be truly sustainable, luminaires need to evolve into products which can be easily disassembled, repaired, upgraded and reused. They also need to have materials and processes with minimal environmental impact. Here Simon Fisher of luminaire design practice F Mark look under the bonnet at ground-breaking lights designed for sustainability.
SESSION 1 Q & A
Just One Thing Micro Talk: The birds and the bees: A biodiversity gain from lighting
We explore Thorlux Lighting’s self-managed sequestration project at Brook Farm, Longtown in Hereford.
11:00 to 11:30am Coffee, exhibition and networking
SESSION 3 Smart remanufacturing
How the addition of intelligence during a lighting upgrade is adding extra services and functionality, and changing the value proposition for clients
Selling sustainability: Remanufacturing from a client’s perspective
Remanufacturing has to work for the client for it to be a success, but often their objectives, timelines and cost appetites aren’t met. Here our speaker shares hard-won insights into how all can benefit.
Just One Thing micro talk: Phil Myles, founder and trustee Donate-A-Light, explains this industry initiative
Smart remanufacturing case study: Bluewater Shopping Centre
Bluewater Shopping Centre had been on a mission to be one of the most sustainable retail malls in the world. As part of this, it is rolling out a huge LED lighting upgrade while retaining as many luminaires as possible. Crucially, wireless nodes have been added, bringing intelligence to the lighting estate. Here Craig Stead from control supplier MyMesh and Anthony Barrow, managing director of Trojan Lighting Solutions, explore the ambitious project.
Project: Aston University Library
Some 657 T5 fluorescent luminaires were upgraded to LED using Thorlux Lighting’s standard retrofit kits while preserving 60 per cent of the original luminaire and saving 127kg of embodied carbon compared to a new luminaire. The addition of the company’s SmartScan control system further reduces energy consumption to 50% of the previous installation. Here Bob Bohannon, group sustainability lead at Thorlux Lighting, takes us through the challenges of the project.
SESSION 3 Q & A
1pm to 2pm Lunch, exhibition and networking
SESSION 5 Creative Cat A
New lights in speculative Cat A office fit-outs often end up in the waste stream when a tenant moves in. Here we explore creative solutions to the problem.
Cat A waste: Can we fix it, yes we can…
The commercial office sector continues to churn out unnecessary waste, including the scrapping of new and nearly new luminaires, through outdated Cat A fit-out practices. Here John McRae, director of Orms and member of the End Cat A Lighting Waste campaign, explores efforts and ideas to fix the system from within.
What if Cat A lighting could be rented — and reused?
That provocative question is the starting point for an ambitious new model from 18 Degrees, a London-based lighting design consultancy. In this session, principal Paul Beale shares the story behind 18 Circular — a radical rethink of the Cat A lighting supply chain anchored in circular economy principles. From the earliest concept to practical pilot projects and stakeholder buy-in, Paul charts the project’s evolution, and the real-world hurdles faced along the way. The session opens with a short documentary capturing the early momentum behind this initiative.
3.00pm to 3:30pm Coffee, exhibition and networking
SESSION 7 Logistics: Closing the loop
How do we create a vibrant market for useable luminaires at the end of their ‘first life’ that keeps them operating and compliance with industry norms?
Take Back case study: SAS Recover
SAS International has made a radical decision to take back, recondition and reuse its ceiling tiles, and it now has 28,000 square metres of refinished stock available for sale, roughly the size of London Zoo. Here business development manager Tim Phillpot takes us through the challenges and the successes of the initiative and how it can serve as an example for lighting and other suppliers of building products.
Case study: Corporate headquarters, Surrey
A retrofit project at a corporate head office has seen the energy use by lighting reduced from 6.8 million kWh to 1.4 million kWh. The remarkable reduction was achieved using a combination of the latest LED-for-LED and LED-for-fluorescent gear tray upgrades and the addition of smart wireless controls. Here Nigel Callaghan, sales and marketing director of the supplier Prime Light, takes us through the project and the company’s unique offer.
Take Back case study: The KKDC ‘return and renew’ service Architectural lighting manufacturer KKDC’s RE.VO ‘return and renew’ initiative is one of the first such programmes forprofile-based linear LED luminaires. It initially covers the new KIISS range which was developed with a focus on complete lifetime longevity using a future-proofed LED light module system to allow simple removability and replacement of the light source. Here Tom Hall, managing director of KKDC England, walks us through the service.
SESSION 7 Q & A
The Circular Lighting Live moonshot panel
Waste and low utilisation of luminaires is one of the biggest environmental challenges in lighting. Can we fix it in a way that creates value and margin for the industry? Our panel considers a range of ambitious, creative and disruptive ideas and approaches to accelerate the lighting industry’s transformation into the circular economy.
Minster Forum
9:00am Welcome
SESSION 2: The Regulatory roadmap
The lighting industry is facing a complex set of both UK and EU regulations that will impact product design and circularity as well as company processes.
Navigating the Circular Economy rules
In the coming years, the EU and UK will implement a wide-ranging set of circular economy and sustainability regulations that will significantly reshape how luminaires are designed, manufactured, and specified. In this session, Teresa Selvaggio, Director of Public Affairs at LightingEurope, offers strategic guidance to help companies and specifiers understand what’s coming—and how to get ahead of it.
Lighting and the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard
The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard is a new technical standard that will enable the built environment to robustly prove that built assets align with the UK’s carbon and energy budgets. Reportable works could include lighting and lighting-only retrofit projects. Here Rosie Bard, associate director and sustainability lead at London architectural practice Orms, walks us through the standard and its implications for the lighting supply chain with reference to real-world projects such as the practice’s head office in Old Street, London.
UK Circular Economy policy and lighting
The Circular Economy Taskforce is an independent expert advisory group supports the UK Government in creating a circular economy strategy for England. In this special presentation, Scott Butler, adviser to the circular economy taskforce EEE group and executive director of Material Focus, explores the possible policies in the pipeline for the electrical and lighting sector.
Recycling and waste: The main changes for 2025
This year has seen an overhaul in three main sets of environmental legislation: The Simpler Recycling rules, the waste packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations and the extension of the WEEE regulations to online marketplaces. Here Nigel Harvey, CEO of Recolight, walks us through the main changes adding a heads up on the forthcoming digital waste tracking regs.
SESSION 2 Q & A
11:00 to 11:30 Coffee, exhibition and networking
SESSION 4 Managing metrics
We unpack the raft of new sustainability metrics and standards, including EPDs, LCAs, TM66 and TM65.2. How can we make them work better?
TM66 Update: What to expect in Version 1
TM66, which measures the circular performance of luminaire, has been in a preliminary ‘beta mode’ since its introduction since 2021. A full version is now being developed by Cibse’s Society of Light and Lighting with changes expected in materiality, language and its ability to be used in greenwash. Here TM66 co-author Kristina Allison, SLL President and Associate at WSP, updates on the development of Version 1.
EPDs: A designers’ guide
What does an Environmental Product Declaration actually tell you? What does good look like? Here Recolight environmental metrics manager Max Robson walks us through the creation of an EPD using life cycle assessment methods to their use in practical specification.
LCA Update: The designers’ metric
• The IALD and the GreenLight Alliance Life Cycle Assessment Incubator has produced findings on the impacts of production, use and disposal of five common architectural luminaires. Here Leela Shanker, founder of the industry study and Sustainability Director of WAP Sustainability’s Design Lab, shares key results from the Life Cycle Assessment report and how the design community can use information from the Environmental Product Declarations in specifications.
EPDs on trial: Are they fit for purpose?
Environmental Product Declarations are famously expensive and labour intensive. But do they stand up to scrutiny? Are they accurate, robust and comparable? In this panel discussion, experts from across the supply chain explores the issues.
SESSION 4 Q & A
1pm to 2pm Lunch, exhibition and networking
SESSION 6 Innovations in Circularity
We explore a host of exciting developments and ideas in the circularity of lighting products and processes. How can we harness them to drive change?
The office light challenging material norms
The pioneering OptiClip office light is challenging industry assumptions about materials. It combines easily-replaceable light sources with luminaire housings made from recycled and recyclable materials, including cardboard and sugarcane. Here Sylvania Group regional director Gareth Petley explores the OptiClip, its development, application and unique properties.
Retrofit case study: Upgrading the A470 road lighting
Signify’s Luma Gen1 retrofit upgrade kit has been used to powerful effect in its first major deployment on the A470 road at Caersws, Wales. There it has been fitted in existing Luma Gen1 streetlights, achieving a 43 per cent cut in energy use while also reducing carbon emissions, light spill and service interruptions. Here Paul Sagar, technology asset project and programme manager at North & Mid Wales Trunk Road Agent and Emily Bolt, technical services manager at Signify take us through the project.
Just One Thing Micro talk: The Pyrex fool dish light
Alexis Nollet, Director of Sales for the French lighting firm Roger Pradier tells us how they created an exterior light from a lunchbox.
SESSION 6 Q & A
3.00 – 3:30pm Coffee, exhibition and networking
SESSION 8 Pioneering projects
A walk through of the most inspiring and ground breaking sustainable lighting projects of recent times in the company of their designers and creators.
Case Study: Signify and Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1
Signify and Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 have signed a partnership deal which will see the lighting brand use its expertise to bring sustainable lighting to this leading Formula 1 team and its state-of-the-art facilities in Brackley, Northamptonshire. The arrangement includes performance-optimising human centric lighting as well as technologies such as NatureConnect. Here Bradley Lord, chief communications officer of Mercedes–AMG PETRONAS F1, takes us through the team’s sustainability strategy and goals.
The challenges of luminaire reuse: Dom Tower
For the relighting of the Dom Tower in Utrecht, Speirs Major Light Architecture reused 70 per cent of the luminaires which it originally specified back in 2013. This led to design challenges with optical design and light distribution. Outside of circularity, it was the practice’s first project, where it got to ‘redo’ one of its original designs. Here Benz Roos, associate partner at Speirs Major Light Architecture, shares his learnings and insights from the project.
Case study: East Riding of Yorkshire Council
This local authority has a policy of ‘keeping lights in the ceiling’ if possible. In recent months it has reconditioned and upgraded to LED a range of diverse luminaires at disparate sites, including a primary school, its head office and the historic Royal Hall at Bridlington Spa. Here East Riding of Yorkshire building services engineer James Martin takes us through the projects and discusses more widely the challenges facing local authorities.
5:00 Build Back Better Award ceremony
5:30 Drinks reception
6:30 Event close
