Together for Our Community
We have built our reputation on constantly rethinking our solutions to minimise our environmental footprint and those of our customers while meeting the expectations of communities worldwide.
With more than half of the world’s population currently living in urban areas, public spaces have become more important than ever. Our Together for our Community strategy focuses on 2 important areas to help achieve the UN's SDGs 11 and 15 and sustainable living for all:
1. the right lighting to preserve our natural environment;
2. lighting that has a positive social impact.
The right lighting to preserve our natural environment
The UN forecasts that 68% of us will live in towns and cities by 2050, meaning an additional 460,000 square miles of our planet will be urbanised.
As we need to share that space with forests, wildlife and insects, we design lighting solutions to ensure safety for people and also let wildlife survive and thrive. For used wisely, today’s technology makes it possible to minimise light pollution, while still providing ample illumination.
Protect our starry skies was the mission when relighting La Mongie in the heart of France’s International Dark Sky Reserve.
We delivered a smart lighting solution that uses 40% less energy, works well in snowy conditions and lets astronomers soak up the views of the Milky Way.
When relighting Galway Bay, the city council wanted to promote more activity mobility while protecting the marine life and dark skies along its coast. We delivered a smart lighting system, controlled by Schréder EXEDRA and fitted with our FlexiWhite solution.
The lighting along the bay switches between amber and white light to protect flora and fauna while ensuring human safety and comfort.
The council can easily adapt the lighting to city life, giving them great control and reducing energy costs by 64%.
Encourage active mobility and protect the local wildlife was key when upgrading the lighting along Borkener Aa River path.
We delivered a smart lighting system with motion sensors so the path is only lit when necessary.
In addition, the luminaires are fitted with warm white LEDs (2,200K) that diffuse a light with a yellow glow to minimise disturbance to the different species of fish, insects and endangered animals living there when they are switched on.
Lighting with a positive social impact
Public lighting has a strong social role to play in any urban area. In line with the UN SDG target 11.2, we want our lighting systems to make a difference so we develop solutions that:
- Improve safety for all, particularly vulnerable people such as the disabled, elderly and children and especially at critical junctions like crossings. Lighting plays a vital role in helping them feel safe, secure and supported.
A great example is the city of Warsaw. In 2016, to address the high number of pedestrian deaths in road accidents in Poland, the city launched a plan to improve the lighting at pedestrian crossings in 12 districts by 2019. The new state-of-the-art LED luminaires provide the necessary vertical and horizontal illuminance, increasing visibility for both pedestrians and drivers and creating a safer, more comfortable and accessible night-time environment. More importantly, the number of pedestrian road deaths in the city has been reduced.
- Improve the quality of life for citizens who want safe, welcoming and engaging public spaces. We deliver solutions that create vibrant and connected spaces where people feel comfortable so they can spend more time outdoors with friends and family, enjoying city life and all its amenities.
We were delighted to work with Valencia City Council to upgrade its entire lighting infrastructure to make the city more pedestrian-friendly for residents and tourists after sunset. It installed aesthetic, energy-efficient luminaires, controlled by Schréder EXEDRA, which have improved the night-time ambiance while eliminating light pollution for residents and reducing energy consumption by over 75%.
Over the years, we have also donated street lights to improve the quality of life in economically less-privileged areas or to help disaster-stricken zones.
In 2021, we took a decision together with the Schréder family, to take a more structured approach to our philanthropic purpose by setting up a global fund in cooperation with the King Baudouin Foundation: the Schréder Together Fund.
Our goal is to work with non-profit organisations to support the communities in which we live and operate.
One example of a community lighting project was in South Africa, where we donated solar lighting on robust glass fibre-reinforced polyester (GRP) poles to Tshinapfene village.
The luminaires have sufficient autonomy to cater for up to two continuous overcast or rainy days, to continue reliable night operations.
Effective street lighting means everyone feels safer so women and children can walk around freely at night and kids can even play football.