Illuminating our future with sustainable practices

We are moving towards a sustainable world, and it’s about time.

As a population, humans are recognising that our vicarious appetite for “more” has led to an unsustainable future for our planet. We know that food, water, energy and other resources need to be managed wisely – and we are delighted that today, sustainability is taking centre stage as nations across the globe have made their green and carbon-neutral pledges.

Moving towards a brighter, more sustainable tomorrow

As a business in the lighting industry, we acknowledge that ours is a space where energy consumption is fundamental to our existence – but we also recognise that illumination is essential for homes, businesses, government offices, public areas, and just about everywhere else.

The good news is, there’s a lot that can be done to make our industry a sustainable one. Already, the introduction of LED lights has led to an 85% decrease1 in energy usage when compared with incandescent bulbs. But there’s still more to be done. A lot more. M Illuminazione (M) is committed to contributing to the sustainability of our industry, and helping our nation achieve its admirable Singapore Green Plan 2030 goals.

These are our plans for lighting up Singapore, while sustaining our City in Nature.

Less power, brighter lights, lower costs

Better Energy Efficiency

Our LED lights are designed with energy efficiency in mind. Using our high efficiency LED chips, our lighting products use less energy to produce higher brightness levels (i.e., more lumens) – making illumination more energy- and cost-efficient.

Smarter Energy Efficiency

Taking energy savings ever further, our products are available in a greater variation of power options – giving users the ability to choose the right wattage for the right application. Put simply, you choose lower wattage lights for areas that require less illumination, and higher wattage lights for environments that need more brightness and visibility.

This gives lighting designers and users precise control over the amount of light they can design into a certain space (for example, using 5w lights for the powder room and 10w lights in the study) – allowing you to have perfectly lit environments and a lower overall electricity usage. Consequently, this means lower energy bills for homes, retail outlets and buildings.

Our Effort for Greener Operations

Made with recyclable materials

Recycling is a core tenet of sustainability, and we are proud that most of our products (including the components within each product) are made from recyclable materials like aluminium. We have switched from the industry-standard plastic packaging to paper-based packaging – using paper boxes and paper dividers to keep our products safe and secure.

Smarter energy efficiency

Taking energy savings ever further, our products are available in a greater variation of power options – giving users the ability to choose the right wattage for the right application. Put simply, you choose lower wattage lights for areas that require less illumination, and higher wattage lights for environments that need more brightness and visibility.

This gives lighting designers and users precise control over the amount of light they can design into a certain space (for example, using 5w lights for the powder room and 10w lights in the study) – allowing you to have perfectly lit environments and a lower overall electricity usage. Consequently, this means lower energy bills for homes, retail outlets and buildings.

Driving towards an electric powered future

Singapore is striving towards net zero emissions by 2050 and electric vehicles (EVs) are an important part of this journey. Thru the years, we have managed to switch all our vehicle to hybrids and EVs. We target to convert all of our vehicles to environmentally friendly EVs by 2030.

Designing Sustainability into Our Lighting Products

Modular designs that enable sustainability

The modular design of our LED lights allows us to implement a wide range of sustainability initiatives. While most LEDs are usually manufactured, purchased and discarded as one whole unit, M’s series of LED lights can be easily assembled one component at a time. Specifically, these components refer to the lens, reflector, honeycomb, LED module, LED driver, mounting trim, and holder.

This gives lighting designers, contractors, retailers and homeowners much more flexibility with how they maintain lights. The modular nature of our LEDs fixtures allows users to replacement of their lights, without having to discard the entire product – resulting in lower monetary costs to users, and lower environmental costs for our planet.

Implementing the Awareness of Smart ecosystems

Leveraging technology to save energy

Through conversations with customers across Singapore, we realised that while most people want to lower energy use, sometimes a helping hand is needed to change habits – and technology can be the impetus for creating this change.

With this in mind, we have introduced smart switches, smart sensors, dimming systems, and smart software (that can integrate with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple’s HomeKit) into our product portfolio for residential or smaller offices/showrooms. These integrated solutions make life – and saving energy – more convenient for users, who can now easily dim or turn lights off when not in use at their fingertips or thru voice commands, Smart timer automation is also possible. We are also working with renowned smart lighting control manufacturer to cater for different kinds of commercial project.

Up and Coming Sustainability Initiatives

LED trade-in programme

In future our LED trade-in programme will allow owners to trade in a faulty LED module with a working one, something that’s possible with the modular nature of our LED lights. The replacement components (LED module or LED Driver) can be easily installed by the owner, or with the help of their contractor. In the case for new owner takes over a space/building/unit, new owners can also return the entire existing fixtures for recycle for a rebate on a new purchase.

Assuredly, as every component in an M LED unit is lasered on (as opposed to the traditional practice of pasting stickers that fade or peel-off over time), owners can be confident that the 1-for-1 component replacement will go smoothly, every time – as our team will know exactly what to replace, and how LED MODULE WITH LASERED ON LABEL And in case you’re wondering where the faulty modules go, the heatsinks are refurbished, while the driver components, chips and wires and sent to the electronic bin for recycling, repurposing or safe disposals.

The paperless movement

Another green initiative that we are pushing towards is having paperless operations. Since 2020, and amidst a global pandemic that hasn’t stopped our sustainability plans, we have managed to cut down our printing by 30-40%. This is the result of digitising more processes and utilising technology for signing and filing documents, managing purchase orders, invoicing, and more. Looking ahead, we plan to introduce greater digitisation into our workflows to further reduce our printing and eventually, fully embrace a paperless work environment.

The earth belongs to all of us. Let’s make caring for it a priority.

At M Illuminazione, we believe that sustainability is our responsibility, and we are committed to fulfilling our promises in this area. We have taken a stand for our environment, and hope you’ll join us along this incredibly fulfilling journey.