Understanding and applying metrics for sustainability is gaining more and more importance in industries due to the need to control emissions to the environment, and also to comply with existing and upcoming legislation. Many businesses do not have the expertise within their organisations to help make this change. This is where expertise at Edinburgh Napier University can help.

Problem:

With a commitment to lowering through-life carbon in their products and ensuring sustainability considerations are embedded into their product design, Stoane Lighting wanted to try and understand how they could quantify the environmental impact of their manufacturing luminaires.

Solution:

Stoane Lighting connected with research scientists at Edinburgh Napier University, through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), to develop a dedicated methodology and benchmarks for the whole life carbon assessment of their wide range of lighting products and the wider lighting industry.

 

Implementing metrics for sustainability

Stoane Lighting is a specialist manufacturer of architectural lighting equipment. The business designs, manufactures and assembles all their lighting products from their Edinburgh base, exporting across the globe, with dedication to ensure their products are designed for the circular economy, with due consideration of embodied and in-life carbon.

Understanding and applying metrics for sustainability is gaining more and more importance in the lighting industry due to the need to control emissions to the environment, and also to comply with upcoming legislation. With the growing business consisting of a skilled team of specialists, from industrial and product designers to marketing and business development, Stoane Lighting realised they did not have the required expertise within the company to undertake expert analysis in sustainability and carbon life cycle assessment. 

A harmonised methodology to measure and report environmental impact 

With support of Innovate UK funding, Stoane Lighting developed and formed a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), connecting with a select team of Edinburgh Napier University data scientists who worked the company to provide that missing expert knowledge. Edinburgh Napier research scientists worked with Stoane Lighting to identify a harmonised methodology that can be applicable for the whole lighting industry to measure and report environmental impact of their products.

For Stoane Lighting, not only did they have the opportunity to learn from the Edinburgh Napier research scientists through the collaboration and by accessing their expertise and knowledge of emerging technologies, but they also had the opportunity to share the insights of the success of the project with sector leaders with the Edinburgh Napier research scientist speaking at their industry conferences and featuring in trade journals, demonstrating to colleagues in the sector and to their customers that Stoane lighting are leaders of innovation in their field.