I had the opportunity to speak with CEO Brian Stern of 1LUX about his energy efficient lighting company and making sustainable lighting affordable
If you are a company in need of an energy efficient lighting solution, you might just go to 1LUX. 1LUX designs, manufactures and distributes lighting for diverse requirements, but specialises in emergency solutions. With Brian Stern as CEO 1LUX has delivered lighting for over 100 million square feet of commercial, industrial and warehouse space. Brian is hands-on in his involvement across the divisions, helping to guide strategy, innovation and product design. Our conversation covers the importance of delivering sustainable lighting solutions that increase business profitability.
Increase Adoption with Economical Solutions
To start our conversation Brian relates a simple but powerful concept, businesses are most likely to adopt sustainable infrastructure when solutions are simple and economical. Brian expands his point: ‘Typically when sustainability, in my experience, is treated as a premium upgrade, it slows adoption. When it’s embedded into design and logistics decisions, you can scale it really quickly.’ Brian sees the business sense in the development of solutions that combine environmental and financial benefit: ‘When you’re putting together sustainability solutions or energy-efficient solutions, if you are able to price or validate them in an economical way, I find that there’s just dramatically higher adoption. It really does have to make business sense.’
Brian shows great pride that 1LUX considers all aspects of design when developing a sustainable lighting product. We particularly discuss CLIQ, a newly developed solution: ‘We tried to think of every single part of the supply chain. We designed the product so that it was very slim, and it could ship in 85% less packaging and 85% less pallets. So just by doing that, you’re reducing emissions to ship across the country, or the world. Less pallets means it’s taking up less space. And then when it’s actually being taken off the trucks, you need less people. And all these things play a role in making something economical.’ Brian is a big believer in the accumulation of positive impacts from small changes in packaging, shipping and implementation.
The Ripple Effect of Small Changes
Throughout our conversation Brian shows significant knowledge of the sustainable lighting industry. He explains that in 2009, when he first entered the industry, an efficient bulb was considered 90 lumens per watt. Today 1LUX sells systems that output 196 lumens per watt. Brian describes the multiple benefits such an efficient product brings to business: ‘When you have a more efficient lighting system, it puts off less waste heat, and so the system itself actually ends up lasting longer in the field. So we get less warranty calls, our customers have a longer-term solution, and it’s more efficient.’ Brian is realistic about the progress that has been made, and understands the huge gains still to be made across all departments from lighting to packaging and logistics.
One small change Brian describes is improving the robustness of the product. A less fragile system reduces the need for the foam bracers, extra cardboard and plastic sleeves traditionally used. Brian enthusiastically describes how these small changes, when implemented at global scale, have the potential for dramatic impact: ‘Not only are we thinking about efficiency from a system and lighting design standpoint, to put out as many lumens per watt as we possibly can, but then we’re thinking about everything around it. How can it be installed faster by our customers? How can it be maintained easier? How can it be shipped faster? I think of all those little system-level design changes. If you look at it across long periods of time, it really can have a very meaningful impact.’
The 1LUX Sustainable Lighting CLIQ System
Brian directs the conversation to CLIQ, the recently launched modular solution for data centre environments, self-storage applications and industrial applications. Brian shows real enthusiasm as he explains that the design process for CLIQ implemented all the small changes discussed earlier in our conversation. He appears particularly excited about the speed and simplicity of installation: ‘What’s cool about it is not only did we focus on innovative packaging, we focused on really innovative modular designs, so we can leverage the same components in every single fixture that’s going into the market, and the way that it assembles is very unique. It installs in 90% less time, so you have less people, you have less waste and you have great efficiency.’
As with many of the examples we have spoken about in the course of the interview, improving ease of install is a small change with the potential for a sleuth of positive impacts to business and the environment when implemented at scale. Brian explains the simplified product installation in more detail: ‘You don’t end up with a dirty environment, they don’t have to cut wires, they don’t have to cut conduit and they don’t have to put in boxes to attach these light fixtures. We developed a system has all the parts and pieces, one person can do it. It installs 90% faster than traditional light sources. And so there are a lot of sustainability and efficiency gains that come from that, on top of just the lighting, which is also extremely efficient.’
‘When you’re putting together sustainability solutions or energy-efficient solutions, if you are able to price or validate them in an economical way, I find that there’s just dramatically higher adoption. It really does have to make business sense.’
