John Bullock Lighting Design
Phone:
+44(0)1935 812447
Mobile:
+44(0)7970 025924
Email:
jb@jb-ld.co.uk
Greenwashing: a guidline for good behaviour
I’d like to thank Content Coms for permission to reproduce their advice to advertisers on how to avoid greenwash and making unqualified environment claims in marketing campaigns. .New anti-greenwashing guidelines for advertisers: w...
29-03-2023
The elephant box in the room
Two timely arrivals at The Coach House - one physical and the other by the wonder of the interweb . . . We heard about the Elephant Box project some weeks ago and signed-up straightaway to an intitiative that seemed so simple, so obvious. And...
20-01-2016
What Lighting Designers Should be Looking For . . . and Asking For
Specfiying for Sustainability - we have to start somewhere! Someone compared the embracing of a sustainable way of doing things to climbing a mountain. At first the air smells sweeter and the views get better – but eventually you find it mor...
20-07-2015
The Children's Fire
Last night I was asked to sit down and watch a TED Talk by Mac Macartney and was blown away by the simple - and overwhelming - image that Mac presents. Who wouldn't want to invest in a future that had the future at its very heart? So why do...
14-07-2015
Products That Last - Redux
What do I mean by Products That Last? I’ve been having some interesting communication with Holland. Having finished my review of ‘Products That Last’ with a less-than-enthusiastic comment about the way that the book had veered aw...
08-04-2015
Products That Last - Review No.3
Products That Last and Applying Product Design Strategies to Your Product I was looking forward to a real upbeat ending to the final part of Products That Last – until I’d finished reading it; by which time I was completely confused an...
04-03-2015
Products That Last - Review No.2
Hello everyone; sorry I’m late – business to attend to and a library book to finish. Now – where was I? Products That Last and Business Model Archetypes I’ve had lots of conversation with luminaire manufacturers about...
17-02-2015
Products That Last - Review No.1
Products That Last - Product Design for Circular Business Models. This is the first of (probably) four reviews of a new book that discusses the necessity of shifting towards a design paradigm that has lifespan of product and re-use of components a...
02-02-2015
Products That Last
I'm not a regular book reviewer; I'm a regular reader but that's a different thing. But every once in a while a book comes along that deserves a bit more attention and a book has just been published that echoes the things that I'v...
27-01-2015
Talking about Waste - as we were . . .
I was invited to attend a round-table discussion by my good friends at LUX magazine to talk, as we so often do, rubbish . . . and what we'r doing about it. Changes in the way that the WEEE Directive is being implemented provided the springboar...
08-01-2015
Sustainability - They Seek it Here, They Seek it There . . .
Sustainability they seek it here, they seek it there . . . from john bullock I delivered this PowerPoint presentation to the ILP Professional Lighting Summit on 25th September 2014, at St. John's Hotel, Solihull. Its an immense amount ...
23-09-2014
Sustainability - the core message
By this time next week, I'll have presented my talk on Sustainability in the UK Lighting Industry at the ILP Professional Lighting Summit. To gain a bit of focus and remind myself what its all about, I've just watched again this video from...
18-09-2014
The Life and Times of the LED - a series in ten parts
Writing about LEDs and Sustainability At last, I have the full ten articles here on the website - see them in the PUBLISHED ARTICLES section. And many thanks to LUX magazine for the opportunity to write them, and the magazine's confidence in p...
17-09-2014
Sustainability: They Seek it Here; They Seek it There . . .
Last week, I fronted my very first TweetChat on behalf of the ILP (Institution of Lighting Professionals) discussing Sustainability issues in the UK lighting industry with all-comers. A very interesting experience that demands succinct and acu...
04-09-2014
Its Twitter Time at JB-LD!
Chatting About Sustainability Although I'm busy at the moment producing interesting lighting designs with LED light fittings that probably don't exist (yet), I'll be taking an hour out on Tuesday afternoon (26th August) to host a Twitt...
22-08-2014
Talking about old hammers
Did I ever to you mention that I've never bought a hammer? I possess three of the things; two ball-peen and a cross-peen, for all you hammer-buffs out there. They belonged to my father, and possibly to his father. It means that the 'Ess...
17-08-2014
A Brief Commentary on Part L: 2014
The way that Part L requires us to assess energy efficiency in lighting changed in April 2014, with the long-awaited launch of new Part L regulations. Previously, it was the relatively simple case of working within efficacy limits, either the efficac...
13-08-2014
Professional Lighting Summit 2014
I was going about my own business, making sure that things are as they should be and found The Professional Lighting Summit 2014: Ah yes, now I remember. I'm speaking on the subject of: Sustainability; they seek it here, they seek it the...
05-08-2014
The Burning Answer - all done!
Its amazing what can be achieved given the benefit of a quiet weekend. The Burning Answer is finished, and a jolly good read it was, too. And perhaps it was appropriate to have been reading it at the same time as watching the Tour de France;...
28-07-2014
The Burning Answer - at 50%
So - the argument has sashayed out from atomic structures (almost) into the world of semi-conductors - which I expecting because, after all, Keith Barnham is a scientist and this is his field - and he's invested more than a few bob of his own mon...
25-07-2014
The Burning Answer - at 25%
Well, I'm a quarter of the way through Keith Barnham's book 'The Burning Answer' and so far I've learned THREE things: 1. I will NEVER understand how atoms work. I dutifully read the words; I recognise each one individually, b...
23-07-2014
The Burning Answer
A friend handed me this book at the weekend, saying: "you'll want to read this." And so I do. Any book with a chapter heading titled 'What is Light' will do it for me, even if it turned out to be a book of knitting patterns. ...
21-07-2014
A Bit Of Disruptive Thinking
The Disruptive Innovation Festival, curated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, will take place from the 20th October – 14th November 2014. There are three ways for you to get involved. See full details in the graphic below. 1. Registe...
30-06-2014
Speaking to the Professionals
Amazingly, its almost July already, though it was surely only yesterday that we packed away the Christmas tree! But this means that September is just around the corner, so I'd better get around to sorting out my presentation to the Institution of...
27-06-2014
Lighting on the Rebound
Yet another bombshell hits the in-box, with news from Snow Hill Station, Birmingham of the Living Wall - the longest in europe, with beautiful LED lighting. I'm reminded of a poorly attended talk given by Jonathan Porritt at LUXLive 2012, at w...
01-05-2014
Blogs Spring 2014
Adapt to Survive! This has to be the message from the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report. As we head into a future that will see wetter winters and drier summers, together with greater insecurity in food production, I h...
30-04-2014
Circular Thinking ...
Reports from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos suggest that we need to get used to a new (to some) buzz term: The Circular Economy. I have to say that it's nothing new around these parts, but it's always interesting when the High Heid Y...
30-01-2014
What we did this Summer
Time for an up-date on what's going on in the business of lighting design and sustainability. As you probably know, I've been banging-on to anyone who'll listen about the inevitability of the construction industry embracing some kind of s...
11-10-2013
Responsible Sourcing and not Falling Over
I've yet to meet someone who thinks that the idea of trying to create a more sustainable future is a bad idea though I'm pretty damned sure they're out there somewhere. For the rest of us, its just that today's trials and travails mak...
29-06-2013
LEDs and what lighting designers want from them
Its been a strange start to 2013, with two seminars already under my belt dealing with the same topic: "What do lighting designers / lighting specifiers want from LEDs". As far as I'm concerned its a simple answer: I w...
17-04-2013
It may not be Horsemeat, but ...
When it comes to it, there aren't many of us who are personally troubled by the concept of Blood Diamonds. We may be appalled by the concept of the very rich helping to fund terrorist activity in other parts of the world, but it's not somethi...
20-03-2013
Lets Talk HORSEMEAT
This isn't the way it was meant to be. I had a clear programme of articles ready, carefully not to say artfully crafted to guide the reader through the exotic world of Corporate Social Responsibility. But then as Tesco and a lot of...
12-02-2013
Ethical Performance Reporting
When it comes to assessing overall performance, the lighting industry tends to look inwards first. and nowhere else after that. Perhaps that's the case with every industry. The lighting business cares about things like energy efficiency, developi...
10-12-2012
And what is Your Anti-Rioting Policy?
In the news today: over 2000 employees rioted at a Foxconn factory that makes products for Apple. The company said: 'A personal dispute between several employees escalated into an incident involving some 2,000 workers at approximately 11pm l...
24-09-2012
Thinking Green
Attitudes to UK Industry I received this report from Thomas Holgeth of High Technology Lighting this morning. I don't know CadenceFisher, whose report it is, but I do like their report. On page 2 we're offered six headlines: Exp...
01-09-2012
Business-to-Business Sustainability Values
Every now and again a piece of commentary comes along that describes well how the lighting industry needs to embrace a sustainable way of going about its business. How to identify a company with sustainable values that match your own. ...
28-08-2012
On the Subject of Bacon Sandwiches
These are interesting times, and it's bad enough having to look after your own stuff without having to check what's going on at the next desk or over the garden wall. But the trouble with this sustainability business is that we really do need...
27-08-2012
Background Resource Information
I get asked a lot for help as to where decent background information can be found on the issues involved in the Sustainability/CSR process. As a consequence, I've started a listing which you can find HER...
27-08-2012
Making Sustainability Work
A friend asked me to explain what it is that we're up to with GS-L ... preferably in simple words. This is what I wrote: There is general support for the idea of acting sustainably; the problem is to find a way of doing it. Environmental issue...
27-07-2012
How Sustainability became Corporate Social Responsibility
A lot of very good work is being done in the name of Sustainability � even though most of those doing the work couldn�t give you a decent explanation of why that work is being done. Yes � we all know that we have an energy crisis, but it�s...
12-07-2012
What makes a Sustainable Lighting Manufacturer?
Today (and every day) I�m asking the question: what should I expect from a �sustainable� lighting manufacturer? This is not an abstract � angels-dancing-on-pinhead piece of philosophy; I really mean it. What DO I expect from a sustainable lig...
04-07-2012
Playing the Blame Game?
This bit of commentary dropped into my in-box this morning. I read it - and then I read it again - then I sat and stared at it, trying to work out why it pissed me off so much. Have a read and see what you think � then I�ll come b...
23-06-2012
Dealing with e-Waste: or not
One of the things that we�ll be doing at GreenSpec-Light is to talk about some of the issues that don�t usually make the popular headlines, but which have enormous relevance to an organisation�s sustainability credentials. And today, I�d l...
22-06-2012
What we'd really like to see from the lighting industry
It usually goes something like this: reducing energy consumption is a sustainable thing to do � low-energy light bulbs reduce the use of energy � therefore low-energy light bulbs are sustainable. Sounds reasonable, but as all you aficionados of A...
20-06-2012
Sustainability and Lighting
The lighting industry is to be congratulated for its response to the global demand for improvements in energy efficiency and carbon reduction - the scientists, engineers, designers, manufacturers and specifiers have all succeeded in improving the tec...
20-06-2012
The Future for Part L 2013
The consultation documentation is out for the next iteration of Part L, as part of the 2013 edition. There are huge changes being proposed for the lighting of commercial buildings the old idea of just having to ask the lighting rep for the lumin...
19-06-2012
Seeking a New Cost Model
The Need for a Lighting Review: It�s common practice to reduce lighting design guidelines to the quantitative call for a specific level of illuminance, and in the process lose the (often qualitative and therefore potentially complex) recommendatio...
24-05-2012
Sustainability What?
ana aw la a7ad...
02-08-2011
The Dance of the Corporate Veil
Two very different news stories hit the headlines this week � one to do with the pollution of rivers in China, the other to do with hacking of personal information by a newspaper; you may have heard of one of them. Although the stories are diffe...
17-07-2011
Who's finger on the switch?
I've already written about the suggestion that Part L requirements should introduce the concept of TIMe into energy planning, shifting the design metric from lm/W to kWh/m2. I'd just like to add afew words about how such a thing would need to...
02-06-2011
Trouble with Part L
The Society of Light and Lighting is getting grumpy with Part L. It seems that they are getting over-excited because the regulations don't take into account the length of time that low-energy light fittings are used. PEOPLE MAY NOT SWITCH THEM OF...
26-05-2011
What should we expect from �green� light fittings?
There is a green haze spreading over the lighting world, blurring the edges and confusing the landscape. What exactly is a �green� light fitting � what should we expect from such a simple adjective? For many, many people, the idea of �gr...
26-04-2011
Reducing our energy usage
We are seeing the end of the traditional incandescent light bulb as governments around the world seek ways to reduce our energy consumption. In the EU, all incandescent lamps will be banned by 2012. We all grew up under the warm glow of the filament ...
04-03-2009
Some queries about low energy lighting
Are CFL lamps safe? There are arguments for and against the compact fluorescent lamp (CFL). Some of those arguments don�t really stand up to scrutiny, but there are some serious aspects that, in my opinion, haven�t been properly addressed. The...
11-02-2009
