Signify hails 'carbon neutrality' milestone as it switches on new green targets

Lighting giant Signify has today announced a series of sustainability milestones, claiming it has achieved 'carbon neutral' status for its global operations, which it said are now powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity.

The LED light bulb manufacturer, formerly known as Philips Lighting, said it had reduced its operational emissions by more than 70 per cent since 2010, having shifted to more energy efficient technologies at its sites while also embracing more sustainable modes of transport, logistics, and staff travel practices.

The firm's clean electricity and emissions reduction efforts have been supported through two power purchase agreements (PPA) with wind farms in Texas and Poland, while a CO2 offsetting programme has served to offset remaining emissions.

The update came as the firm announced its new sustainability programme today, pledging to "go beyond carbon neutrality" by reducing its emissions over its entire value chain, with an overarching goal to achieve the target set out in the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5C.

Eric Rondolat, CEO of Signify, said reaching carbon neutrality was a "truly significant achievement", but warned there was still far more to do, given the threats posed by climate change and resource scarcity to the global economy.

"This is not a time to pause and celebrate, but a time to become even more ambitious and accelerate our efforts to address these challenges," he said. "Growth for sustainability and providing a great place to work are firmly anchored as central parts of our company strategy. This means that when it comes to sustainability, we will go beyond carbon neutrality and double our positive impact on the environment and on society in 2025."

Signify also said it planned to increase the energy efficiency of its lighting products - which it said would reduce the emissions of its customers - in addition to driving CO2 reductions at its suppliers.

In addition, the firm said it plans to focus on reducing its resource consumption by setting a target to double its revenues from "circular products, systems and services" that can be reprinted, refurbished, reused, and recycled to 32 per cent of all sales by 2025,

It has also set a target to remove plastics altogether from all of its consumer packaging before the end of 2021, while achieving zero waste to landfill.

Other targets set by the company include doubling the percentage of women in its leadership teams to a 34 per cent share, and doubling the percentage of revenues from products and services which increase food availability, safety and security, and health and wellbeing.

Helen Clarkson, CEO of green business NGO The Climate Group, welcomed Signify's progress on renewable electricity, electric vehicles, and carbon neutrality.

"We have been working in partnership with Signify for over 10 years to accelerate the global adoption of energy efficient LED lighting and through Signify's support of RE100 and EV100," she said. "The 2020s are the climate decade as we need to halve global emissions by 2030 to get us on track to meet the goals of the Paris agreement, so we need more companies to follow Signify's lead in setting their own net zero targets."

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• Topics
• Supply chain
• Net Zero Now
• Signify
• LED Lighting
• The Climate Group
• RE100
• carbon neutral