Beyond disposable lighting design.
Towards a circular economy in UK lighting.
The challenge of CAT-A lighting.
A Cat-A space is usually an office which is “fit out” to a basic standard before a tenant is found. It includes most of the services you would need to begin moving into the office such as heating, cooling, power and lighting.
In the case of lighting, it has become standard practice for full floor plates of lighting to be installed at practical completion. The lighting is often functional, overly uniform, and not particularly aspirational, with many developers reluctant to invest in impressive lighting.
This creates the potential for unsustainable waste, as it is common for a tenant to remove a vast quantity, if not all, of the Cat-A lighting and replace it with lighting that better meets their needs (Cat-B fitout). Often, the discarded Cat-A lights have barely been switched on.
tonnes of CO₂ equivalent generated annually by discarded lights.
Currently, up to 100,000 light fittings are removed each week (source: RECOLIGHT), many of which end up in landfills of within the “waste cycle”, with an estimated annual 104,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent generated annually by discarded lights.
"The manufacturing of these lights involves extracting and processing rare and costly minerals, often under ethically questionable conditions."
The materials embedded in Cat-A lighting, from aluminium and plastics to rare earth metals, represent a significant environmental and economic cost but the environmental toll is not just in waste. The manufacturing of these lights involves extracting and processing rare and costly minerals, often under ethically questionable conditions. This design model reflects a "disposable design" approach that places short-term functionality over long-term sustainability.
We’re heading in the right direction. There are developers who are leading the way on reducing waste and it would be naive to suggest there is not a place for well designed Cat-A that suits the needs of the less sophisticated tenant or is of a quality that means it can be adapted to fulfil a Cat-B fitout or can be modified and reused at the end of tenancy.
But there is still bad practice, and the industry needs to change. Not just behavioural but a full system change.
