August 18th, 2025
Maria Hurtado, Senior Electrical Engineer and Lighting Designer in the Oxford office discusses Circular Economy in Lighting Design.
Off the back of her success at the Worshipful Company of Lightmongers awards and her graduation from UCL with a master’s degree, Maria Hurtado, Senior Electrical Engineer and Lighting Designer at CBG, recently brought the electrical and lighting teams together to deliver a thoughtful and insightful presentation on the current situation of circular economy. In this article, Maria answers some questions to give an overview of circular economy, its relevance, and how it can be implemented in today’s construction world.
What is circular economy?
Circular economy follows the idea that resources and materials can be reused and repurposed, rather than recycled, wasted in landfills or incinerated.
Why is it an important topic?
The global economy is consuming 70% more virgin materials than the world can safely replenish. Waste in the construction industry is a real issue. The industry accounted for 23% (5.7 billion tons) of global economic activities’ CO2 emissions in 2009, which is almost a quarter of the world’s emissions. Just in the UK, the construction and demolition industry in the UK generated 59.1 million tonnes of waste in 2020.
What is the current state of Cat A fit-outs in the lighting industry in terms of sustainability?
As I found during my dissertation research at UCL, Cat A fit outs are known to be wasteful practices, but circular economy can be implemented in this type of project to help limit waste. Cat As are responsible for between 30 to 100kg (of which lighting is 11kg) of equivalent carbon dioxide per square metre.
Is circular economy well known in the lighting industry?
A significant number of people in the lighting industry in the UK are not aware of circular economic practices nor guidance or regulations regarding the circular economy in the construction industry. Circular economy is starting to gain popularity in this industry although it has historically been present in heritage projects for preservation reasons. The price and environmental impact of remanufactured luminaires tends to be lower than buying new equivalents.
What role can we play?
At the start of the project, we should be examining whether the lighting installation needs updating. If it doesn’t, certainly the solution with the least amount of environmental impact is to retain the current luminaires. However, if the lighting requires an upgrade, the traditional way is to replace with new luminaires which will have the biggest environmental impact. To contribute to circular economy, our role is to consider whether any of the elements of the luminaires can be retained and consider remanufacturing the luminaire to mitigate some of the environmental consequences of replacing them with new ones.
What are the next steps to move the circular economy forwards in the lighting industry generally and particularly in Cat A fit outs?
There are several issues to address to move circular economy principles forwards in this industry. There is a lack of awareness and confidence, sometimes no clear benefit for the client, and a tendency to strip out existing luminaires. Some ways to solve these problems would be to promote remanufactured luminaires, offer transparency and support, introduce circular economy legislation and accreditations, educate people, and create financial incentives. In the future, we will rely on lighting specifiers, luminaire manufactures and government bodies to play a part in contributing to circular economy.
What would be the new way to design lighting with all this in mind?
Lighting designers should be thinking about establishing minimum circularity requirements when planning and evaluating the condition of existing luminaires from the outset. Providing photometric files of to-be-remanufactured luminaires to designers can prove tricky but early planning can ease this process and make a remanufacturing project a success.
