Our sustainability strategy

PROTON LIGHTING

“Everything that happens, happens in Värnamo – and that makes it easier to take a holistic approach”

Social, environment and economy – when you work in the lighting industry, it’s all connected. Johanna Gustafsson and Tobias Levinsson explain how.

Proton Lighting has made a number of investments in recent years in more sustainable and environmentfriendly methods in its paint shop. Agan Sela is the production manager.

“With luminaires from Proton Lighting, our customers can save energy and reduce their impact on the climate, while seeing their investment pay off financially,” says Johanna Gustafsson, environment and sustainability manager at Proton Lighting. “All this contributes to lighting that makes people feel good. But we have also created an internal development and production environment where we work actively to reduce our own environmental impact.”

Creating sustainable values for the customer

Energy-efficient lighting is an important element in the switch to a low-carbon economy, and now as energy prices are soaring, the economic impact is an increasingly important factor for customers, says Tobias Levinsson, product manager at Proton Lighting.

“We can take an everyday parking garage or similar facility as a typical example. They are often fitted with older model ‘fat’ fluorescent lights, what we call T8s. These old lamps consume a huge amount of electricity. By replacing them with modern LED luminaires fitted with smart controls, we can sometimes reduce the customers’ power consumption by up to 85%. In such cases, an investment in new luminaires can pay for itself in less than two years.”

But good luminaires alone are not enough. To achieve this kind of energy saving, they also have to be used in the right way. To ensure this, the luminaires are equipped with smart light sensors and proximity controls using microwave detectors. The best part about these sensors is that they don’t just work the traditional way – switching the lights on and off in the entire facility when someone comes in.

“Rather, they note the movement of a person through the parking garage or facility and switch on the luminaires individually as the person passes them,” Tobias says. “They provide just enough light that the person can see well and feel safe, without wasting electricity in other parts of the facility where no one is.”

Good advice from start to finish

In order to achieve these results, Proton Lighting offers its customers advice throughout the process. The customer receives proposals for lighting planning designed to meet all current legal requirements, provide a good lighting environment and optimal power consumption.

“By having good awareness of the processes in our own manufacturing, we can help the customer make good decisions at an early stage,” Johanna says.

“For example, perhaps the customer wants a luminaire to be painted with a particular paint or colour. In that situation, we can check their wishes against our routines. If it turns out the paint isn’t good from an environmental standpoint, we can suggest a better choice.”

Production and manufacturing in Sweden

What makes Proton Lighting different from many others in the lighting industry is that everything happens in house, on site at Proton Lighting in Värnamo.

Johanna Gustafsson, environmental and sustainability manager, Proton Lighting. Tobias Levinsson, product manager, Proton Lighting.

By having good awareness of the processes in our own manufacturing, we can help the customer make good decisions at an early stage. “

“We have a one-stop shop: from development to choice of components to manufacturing to sales. We also have key people who are specialists in all the important fields: development, design, lighting planning and environment, which makes it easier to maintain sustainable dialogues throughout the chain,” Tobias says.

Johanna adds that it makes things easier that the products are developed and manufactured in the same place. “This means that we can control the entire process – down to the tiniest bit of metal,” she says, giving several examples of initiatives they have carried out, which you can read about in the sidebar.

With production in house, Proton Lighting can also shoulder a significant amount of social responsibility. Through many years of collaboration with Samhall, the company has had the benefit of a number of workers who would otherwise be left out of the job market. “Samhall’s employees get the opportunity to work in our production or our warehouse. They are also offered electrical safety training. If they pass the training, they can start working as installers for us. Obviously this is a requirement for our own installers as well.”

Focus on the supply chain

Are there no challenges? Of course there are, Johanna says.

“The next question we need to ask ourselves is what our products contain, particularly the electronic components. We can’t just sit and wait for someone to come and tell us. Much of this is about gaining better knowledge about the supplier chain. Our goal is for our products to be completely SCIPfree – that is, free from Substances of Concern listed on the candidate list, which is also an EU requirement. If we identify such components, we must find alternatives to replace them with – and this is a challenge. “As environmental and sustainability manager, I enjoy working at Proton Lighting because it is an organisation that dares to make choices, and that means we have good prospects of getting even further.”

The big bus garage at Veinge Bus needs a lot of light to facilitate the staff’s maintenance work. The new luminaires from Proton Lighting provide a lot of light and excellent working conditions without reducing energy efficiency. New energy-efficient LED lighting for fast-paced sporting events at the Munkedals BK arena in Skogsvallen. COMPLETED INITIATIVES

By reducing the thickness of the metal in certain components, we have reduced material consumption and weight, which in turn leads to lower weight in transport and a reduced climate footprint. Only powder coatings are used and the chemical processes are continuously monitored. Upgrading of powder coating guns, installation of new filters and new hanging technology in the paint shop have contributed to reducing waste and emissions to air. Adjusting the final rinse stage has reduced emissions from rinse water by 75%. All energy purchased is 100% renewable. The company has also installed 12 new electricity meters and a comprehensive control system to make the entire process energy efficient.