LOOKBOOK
City of Mechelen (BE)
On the road to becoming a carbon neutral city
The Belgian city of Mechelen wants to become the first carbon neutral city of Flanders. It’s a fact that there is a lot to gain in this area. Cities use approximately three quarters of all energy and produce 75% of greenhouse gasses. But what do you do? Where do you start?
The transition to different ownership models is an important step in the direction to a circular economy. The municipality of Mechelen used this to organize a contest. They wanted to transition to light as a service and searched for the right lighting company.
That meant, in this case, paying for light instead of paying for lamps.
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The responsibility lies with the manufacturer, instead of the user
Together with TRILUX, the fixtures in the art academy, the conservatory, the arts center and the rooms of the archive were replaced with sustainable LED lighting. This made tremendous changes to the energy bill and energy consumption. Moreover, agreements were made over a period of 15 years about replacing faulty lighting. “This is an advantage for us, because we are assured broken lights will be fixed within a considerable time limit and we don’t have to put any of our employees on the case,” councilman Koen Anclaux says.
TRILUX remains the owner of the fixtures, instead of the user buying them. In this way the responsibility for high-quality lighting lies with the manufacturer, and can be fully reused if need be. For example, when rooms get a different function over time.
“We can discuss the new needs with the client. What would you like to do with the light? We can reuse it, or refurbish it, or take it back to our factories to recycle it in our production process“ Willem Dammers (CEO of TRILUX Benelux) explains.
Want to know more about light as a service model?
These lighting designs are developed in cooperation with TRILUX.
Our light experts are happy to help you with your light plan: from drawing board to realization. Call us at +49 29 32 3010 or e-mail Isabel Sabisch or Janina ten Haaf.