Office efficiency

Sylvania discusses how lighting supports a more efficient office environment

How do you perceive your office? Cost or contributor? It’s an important distinction because today’s built environment has the capacity to make a positive contribution to productivity in terms of employee efficiency and wellbeing but also in terms of cost reduction, through more energy efficient lighting infrastructure. An office is an asset so making sure it delivers the best possible return is especially important given the current tough economic climate.

Good quality lighting provides obvious benefits to workers, but it provides cost benefits to the business too. With energy bills on the rise, optimising lighting so it is as energy efficient as possible, can make an immediate positive contribution to the bottom line, reducing utility bills and maintenance costs.

Keeping it simple may be an old adage but it’s an effective one. If you’re sitting in your office reading this then look up and around you. Is that an incandescent lighting strip above your desk? Or halogen lamps lighting the corridor? If the answer is yes, then there’s opportunity to immediately make your lighting infrastructure deliver better returns. Incandescent lighting consumes 75% more energy than newer, more efficient LED alternatives, while halogens are gradually being phased out from the European market and this means that many existing ones are no longer meeting current EU eco-design requirements. LEDs have long been acknowledged as the optimum solution for lowering energy usage and they are also straightforward to retrofit, their often modular-based architecture can be easily customised to suit a variety of applications from commercial offices through to educational spaces.

The efficiency and productivity benefits of switching to LEDs, don’t stop at installation. Their light quality characteristics mean LEDs play an important role in boosting employee performance and contribute to creating a more productive office space. But on top of this, they are also a more flexible solution that is compatible with sensors and automation to make more efficient use of available office space. Take another look around your office – are you lighting unoccupied areas? Occupancy sensors ensure that only those areas that are in use are lit. The knock-on effect of using space more intelligently and reducing lighting usage, is that maintenance demands on lighting systems are in turn reduced. The long, reliable lifetimes of LEDs mean minimal upkeep to further drive down operational costs, both immediately and in the longer-term.

Together, LED and technological innovation combine to not only deliver a more energy efficient solution but one that gives greater control over the built environment too. Improving functionality is transforming the contribution lighting is making to today’s office spaces, turning it into a contributor rather than a cost.

Learn more about improving productivity through your built environment in our eBook, ‘Introducing your New Operational Officer’