Thanks to LED lighting technology it is possible to address key issues such as climate change, productivity, innovation and energy efficiency. And for Agostino Renna, president and CEO of GE Lighting EMEA, surely now is the best time to make progress on these challenges, because the future lies in achieving balance in the change process.
Currently the lighting industry faces challenges both local and European, especially in relation to energy efficiency solutions. Agostino Renna, president and CEO of GE Lighting EMEA, says that there are three global “mega” trends converging in the lighting industry and they entail the biggest transformation ever seen in the last 100 years.
1- Emphasis and interest on climate change
This phenomenon is caused by two factors: the increase in world population and the increasing desire of people for higher levels of life. Because of that, over the next 20 to 25 years a greater demand for energy will emerge. We have historically relied on fossil fuels to generate energy, which generate carbon emissions that lead to global warming.
If we want to solve this problem, there are two possible solutions. The first option is to generate energy more responsibly. The second option is to use less energy per unit of production, or in other words, be more energy efficient.
This is where the lighting, which consumes 20% of the world’s energy comes into discussion. Agostino Renna says that “there is now the opportunity for new lighting technologies to save between 40 to 70% of the energy currently consumed by conventional lighting solutions.” In fact, of all the imaginable possible strategies to reduce carbon emissions, the economy of lighting is the best option to be considered.
2- Internet and industry
Essentially it is a marriage between machines and devices and computers. Now there is the ability to integrate intelligence in lighting products so as to generate data that can be used to make decisions, which in turn increase productivity. “The transition from analogue to digital broadcasting which was introduced by the evolution of LED technology has enabled this,” says GE Lighting EMEA’s CEO.
3- Technological Innovation
The entrepreneurship spirit has been raised again in large corporations, bringing increasingly faster, more creative and innovative systems, by investing in the ideas of risk in an attempt to generate new technologies and business models for the future. Renna is committed to it, “GE, for example, launched a program so- called ‘Fast Works’, which is essentially a process to lead experiments resulting in the generation of new business ideas.”
GE Lighting continues to invent energy-efficient solutions that will change the lighting in commercial, industrial and municipal or residential environments. Founded by Thomas Edison, the company is present in over 100 countries and sells products under the Reveal ® and Energy Smart ® brands in the consumer channel, and Evolve ™, GTx ™, Immersion ™, Infusion ™, Lumination ™ and Tetra® as trademarks, all registered by GE.
