Lighting energy consumed in the office space costs the UK hundreds of millions of pounds each year. If you drive through any town or city after dark, row upon row of commercial and public buildings resemble Blackpool illuminations and the resultant glow of light can be seen in the sky above. And these lights aren’t just confined to the night. There are businesses that have virtually no natural light and are artificially lit 24 hours a day. 

Organisations have a responsibility to their stakeholders to reduce unnecessary spend on lighting energy as well as being accountable for reducing their carbon footprint. But how can businesses cut down on lighting energy?

Recent building regulations have come into force to address the issue of carbon emissions, including the new Building Regulations Approved Document L – Energy Conservation in Building. Lighting contributes significantly to CO2 emissions and accounts for around 25% of the energy bill in commercial buildings. 

Over recent years the construction industry has targeted lighting as a key element in sustainable design. As a result of the new regulations, the lighting industry has invested significant resources into researching new energy efficient technologies. 

There are many lighting technologies on offer but while newer products may look more expensive, their Benefits outweigh traditional versions. Older lights are inefficient, including the popular incandescent light bulbs that convert a mere 10% of electrical energy to light and waste 90% as heat. Even halogen bulbs that burn brighter, use less electricity, and last twice as long as incandescent bulbs are not as efficient as the new products on offer.

New compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) emit the same amount of light as incandescent bulbs but are up to 80% cooler, four times more energy efficient, last 10 times longer and are responsible for the emission of 70% less CO2. They may look more expensive than standard bulbs but easily recover their costs in energy savings. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are also extremely energy efficient, lasting over 100 times longer than incandescent bulbs and up to 10 times longer than CFLs. They have low heat generation and power requirement and are highly durable. LEDs are expensive, costing more than CFLs, but energy savings over their lifetime means the cost saving benefit is clear.

Millions of tonnes of carbon emissions could be saved every year in industrial premises alone if the high intensity discharge lights used in factories, manufacturing plants and warehouses were replaced with energy efficient alternatives. The latest energy efficient lights may offer improved light quality and can severely reduce the amount of carbon used, but what else can businesses do?

Lighting control is one area businesses can look to improve and therefore significantly reduce the amount of energy being used. Good lighting control ensures lights are only on in buildings when needed.  Many products on offer can be easily fitted into existing buildings and lighting systems including daylight and manual linked dimming, remote control devices and time lag switches, all helping to cut down on continued use of lights which is prevalent in today’s buildings.

Buildings should also encourage the use of natural lighting to cut down on energy. A well-designed space maximises the use of daylight which in turn reduces the need for artificial lighting. Measures can be taken by avoiding high partitions which prevent light reaching other parts of the footplate and restricting cellular offices to areas away from windows and enclosing them with glass rather than solid walls. But simple actions can be taken from the employer to achieve natural light, such as keeping windows and roof lights clean and unobstructed.

So many lights are unnecessarily kept on in buildings. For instance, how often does one person enter a room and turn all the lights on when in fact they only occupy a small part of the room? While everyone knows this to be the case, businesses need to invest time in educating their staff about the responsibilities of cutting down on lighting. Facilities managers must take care to ensure internal lighting is switched off when the building is empty, but they can also take effective steps to encourage best practice among their staff, including:

• Place stickers by every light switch reminding people to turn off the lights when they leave.
• Include discussions on good energy efficiency practices in team meetings.
• Feature the topic in company newsletters and intranets.
• Encourage energy efficiency awareness in new staff induction programmes and company handbooks.

As well as the cost Benefits of cutting down on lighting, businesses also have a responsibility to the environment. Light pollution, which is becoming an increasingly important problem for local authorities, can be described as the artificial light that is allowed to illuminate and intrude upon areas where it is not intended to be lit. For example, skyglow - the orange glow seen over towns resulting from upwards light. 

In addition, poor external lighting can also produce glare which conceals rather than reveals safety risks, has a negative impact on the local ecology and affects the behavioural patterns of wildlife. Both types of pollution contribute to wasted energy and money.

The best method of dealing with light pollution is to start at the very beginning and address lighting designs at the planning stage. Is lighting even necessary in a particular building?  Could safety or security of the building be achieved by segregation or screening instead? If necessary, a number of simple measures can be taken to avoid causing a large amount of pollution, including only using the necessary amount of light and correctly adjusting lights for the purpose they were intended. Further measures can include beaming angles below 70 degrees downwards and if up-lighting must be used then companies can install shields or baffles above the lamp.

We all need to think about ways to reduce our energy consumption and carbon footprint for the envrionment but many businesses see new environmental measures too costly to implement. In fact by simply employing a couple of simple measures, organisations could reap financial reward as well as improving the environment. 

Newer energy efficient lighting products may seem expensive compared with traditional products, but part of the benefit is a lower lifetime cost. Businesses can even cut down on cost by simply educating their employees about light consumption and encouraging them to cut down on their own lighting use in the office space. Organisations have a responsibility to cut down on their spending given the current economic situation and by simply re-thinking and re-designing the way we light our buildings we can do just this.