Untangling the Lighting Sustainability Web: How NEMA Lighting Members Are Leading the Charge for Transparency

By Karen Willis, Managing Technical Director, Built Environment, NEMA

Navigating the complex landscape of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Life Cycle assessments (LCAs) while meeting Corporate Social Responsibility standards is a growing priority for NEMA lighting members. As green building frameworks demand greater transparency and organizations like the American Institute of Architects and Mindful Materials call for firm commitments, manufacturers face the daunting task of responding to a bewildering array of methodologies that often lack clarity and comparability.

The challenge lies in the fact that published performance data for sustainable products can be very difficult to evaluate and compare. The absence of internationally standardized Product Category Rules and Product Specific Rules for lighting products leads to significant variations in EPDs. The use of secondary data and disparate assumptions is also an issue. This lack of standardization makes it nearly impossible to create a level playing field for assessing the environmental performance of lighting products.

To address these challenges and achieve international harmonization in EPD methodologies and LCAs for lighting products, the Global Lighting Association (GLA) recently released a white paper calling for industry action. NEMA is an active member of the GLA, and the following NEMA Lighting Sustainability Task Force members contributed to the report: Acuity Brands; Current Lighting, GE Lighting, a Savant company; LEGRAND North America; Lutron Electronics; RAB Lighting; and Signify North America. The paper proposes several key solutions:

1. Globally Standardized Product Specific Rules (PSRs): Establishing universal PSRs is crucial for ensuring consistent and comparable EPDs across the global lighting industry.
2. Defining Clear Functional Units: By normalizing environmental impacts to the actual performance delivered, clear functional units enable fair evaluation of products.
3. Harmonized Approaches for Handling Product Families: Moving away from a "worst-case" approach can prevent the misrepresentation of the environmental performance of entire product families.
4. Accounting for Regional Variations with Common Default Scenarios: Accounting for regional variations, such as transportation methods, energy supply mix, and recycling rates, will enhance comparability and accuracy.
5. Alignment with Established Lighting Performance Standards: EPD calculations should align with recognized lighting performance standards to ensure consistency and reliability.

Industry-wide collaboration is essential to advance transparency and prevent divergent practices that could complicate product comparison. By implementing these harmonization measures, the global lighting industry can produce more accurate, reliable, and comparable EPDs.

The goal of LCA/EPDs is to improve environmental performance, and these solutions will also aid in that effort, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions based on consistent and transparent environmental performance information, ultimately advancing the industry's sustainability goals.