7. People, energy and performance: a new approach to office lighting

Covid has radically altered the way we work, with a hybrid approach seeing people spending as much time working from home as in the office.For companies to persuade people back to the workplace and attract new talent, they now have to offer attractive, comfortable spaces that provide opportunities for creativity and collaboration.Lighting has a large part to play in making people feel healthy and comfortable at work, whether it’s through human-centric lighting or access to daylight and exterior view.Of course, any lighting strategy has to minimise the energy used. With lighting making up around 17% of energy use in an office, it’s imperative that designers look at strategies that minimise energy use, therefore reducing costs and the carbon in their projects.Our podcast will explore the current trends in lighting around design, people and performance and will look at how automated controls can help reduce energy use.Guests discuss the key trends in commercial lighting, including tuneable white light, flexibility, access to daylight, the digital transformation, and how automated controls can help reduce energy use. The guests also emphasise the importance of refurbishing and the reuse of materials and look at CIBSE’s TM66 guide to circular lighting. The guests appearing in the podcast chaired by Alex Smith are: Miguel Aguado, marketing and technology manager at Lutron Electronics. Juan Ferrari, a lighting designer who leads the London Lighting Design team at Hoare Lea. Bob Bohannon, head of policy and academy at the Lighting Industry Association. He is also a past president of the Society of Light and Lighting, and led the team that wrote CIBSE’s TM66 on circular lighting.