On a mission to accelerate the lighting industry's transition to sustainable design, we challenge ourselves to design the lowest embodied carbon, non-toxic lighting solutions. Our products contain no metal, plastic, or glass in their housings. Instead they are natural wood, wool and hemp, red-list free, and accompanied by 3rd party verified sustainability documentation. For several decades, the discussion about sustainability in lighting has been focused on energy efficiency. As other products such as flooring and furniture have been scrutinized for their material sustainability, lighting has been treated as an exception. However, we believe lighting should be scrutinized in the same way, and the topic of sustainability should include an analysis of embodied carbon and toxic materials. Today, architectural light fixtures are more energy efficient and longer lasting than ever. However, they are made from primarily metals and plastics. Raw aluminum used for fixture housings may be recyclable, but requires an oven burning at over 1000 degrees to melt and shape, consuming a ton of energy. Plastic used for optics and diffusers is made in oil refineries, releasing toxic chemicals into the environment that will eventually end up in a landfill or polluting our oceans. Although as an industry we are doing a great job conserving electricity during the operational lifetime of our products, there is a need for improvements in the sourcing, manufacturing, and end-of-life considerations of our creations. It is the responsibility of the manufacturing community to design sustainable alternatives to commonly used products. However, the design community holds the power to pressure manufacturers into doing so by specifying sustainable products whenever possible, and demanding 3rd party verified sustainability information about those products. When you specify Lightly instead of traditional metal and plastic products, you are accelerating the sustainability movement.
