Sustainable Development and public lighting :
The light fitting is not the only thing that can be improved. End of a misconception

Public Lighting : we must reduce energy costs and CO2 emissions at all costs. Why have all efforts made to date dealt only with the obvious, i.e reducing the energy consumption of the light fitting itself? It’s just not enough. A lighting column is quite clearly a light fitting and a column, so the choice of column is really just as important as the choice of light fitting. Allow us to demonstrate.

Aubrilam, European leader in the manufacture of wooden lighting poles, has got together with Bureau Veritas to calculate the environmental impact of its products. The publication just recently of the data obtained confirms that using wooden columns in place of traditional metal ones allows an offset of thousands of tons of CO2 from the moment of installation, and also a saving of millions of kWh of energy. So for public lighting it is imperative not only to include the light fitting but also its support, the column, in any calculation that is made on environmental impact. The figures speak for themselves.

It is not commonly known that the environmental impact of any product begins at the moment of its design. This ignorance leads to muddled thinking ; the environmental impact cannot be reduced to energy consumption or CO2 emissions linked to the product when in use. The whole lifecycle of the product needs to be assessed, from the extraction of the raw materials needed for its manufacture, through to manufacture itself, transport, installation and handling and scrapping. Each one of these stages has a greater of lesser impact which can now be quantified thanks to Life cycle Analysis (LCA), the world’s most refined evaluation method in existence to date. (ISO norms 14040,44,49 and 14025).

The result : a metal pole is responsible for the emission of nearly 203kg of CO2, whereas a wooden pole doing exactly the same job emits only 72 kg of CO2.

The world’s leading manufacturer of metal poles indeed confirmed in a recent communication that it is better for the environment to use a wooden pole rather than a metal one. With steel and aluminium columns there is a lot of talk about recyclability, obscuring, for obvious reasons, the huge quantities of energy used in extraction and manufacture, not to mention the generation of toxic waste products which cause irreversible pollution problems.

Aubrilam is making public the Lifecycle Analysis for its product range. The first company in this line of business to do so. Verified by Veritas, these results come with an ‘Eco-Gauge’ which visualises the ecological potential of a public sector project. Just as an example, on a ‘typical’ project with 63 columns 5m high, we can see that it would be possible to save 14.600 kWh, prevent the release of 335 kg of toxic waste and offset 7 tons of CO2 simply by opting for a wooden pole instead of a metal one.

The publication of these previously unknown data confirms what we have only been able guess at up to now. It’s good news for the planet and now the method of choice for eco-responsible public projects. To make an informed choice, you have to be able to compare. The calculation is done in a moment. Thinking alternatively means finally understanding that we can save on things other than the obvious.