ZTA: Not just a product
Designing for the future
ZTA is an idea that embodies the core values that (Mike) Stoane Lighting have held on to since the very beginning. Equipment should be designed to last, designed to be repaired, designed to be upgraded and designed to be recycled.
More than that, it is designed to use the least amount of plastic components, minimise waste and to be manufactured as close as possible to us here at our headquarters in Edinburgh. We take our responsibilities seriously and our impact on the environment is very much in mind with this product range.
It’s very encouraging to see others beginning to follow suit, we hope they will raise the bar. We also hope that planned obsolescence and low quality, disposable product design in a race to the bottom becomes a sin of the past.
Challenge us, so that we can improve too, as an industry we need to pull together to make responsible manufacturing a must. As many specifiers look towards environmentally focused specification guides, we are active in supporting them and anyone else with the same motives.
but what is ZTA as a product?
ZTA is a range of lighting equipment offering total flexibility. The platform has been designed to allow freedom in light source choice, beam control choice, finish choice and with a wealth of options for mounting (track, surface mount, pole clamp, suspended pendant, fixed focus ceiling mount, extended pan… then a world of customs).
The ZTA products already here on our website offer starting points with some suggestions as to light sources, optics and control methodologies but its built to allow us to respond to your project requests. This flexibility is what allows us to have a product that gives us options to upgrade light sources in the future; as far as possible the fitting has been designed to predict and avoid future obsolescence.
what else?
ZTA is also a response to calls in the industry to simplify the aesthetic of the product. It has moved us towards a simpler can shape form and where possible, devoid of fleeting fashionable features.
It’s also a means for us to offer even greater flexibility; with this platform we have the starting point to respond to the needs of any project and not manufacture speculatively. By only manufacturing product when there is a demand, as we always have, also means we’re not trying to sell what we need to get rid of, rather we are selling what someone needs, when they need it.
None of this means anything if it’s not financially viable. We have listened to calls from the industry to bring down the price point, without dropping any of the tricks. Yes, we have succeeded in that too. The ZTA range offers a significant cost saving on its equivalent in the TTX2 range.
We hope some of you reading this might already have or have specified one of our older products, we know that products from 20 years ago are still going strong. We're active in supporting these older projects too though, for example the upgrade of halogen to LED to extend their useful life.
In summary, don’t buy ZTA! Well… unless you have to. If you do, then at least feel good that it’s a product designed and manufactured with the flexibility to give you what you want as well as being designed and manufactured to last, with our core values at the heart of it.
This is one that you can fully justify on all fronts to your ever more demanding end client!
Making the earth connection
Back in 2020 we launched "Making the Earth Connection". What's that all about?
It's our spin on Patagonia’s “Buy Less, Demand More”. The principles are the same: consider the implications of your choices, hold to account those that you opt for.
Are we ‘doing better’? By putting ourselves under the scrutiny of B Lab during our B Corp application we answered over 200 questions before passing the bar. They cover a huge range of things, from the average length of our supplier relationships, our Zero Waste commitment, to our Employee Ownership model (where the employee trust owns 62.2% of the business).
Our Employee Ownership model sits on the foundations of our values and purpose: making things way better, by making things a better way. That statement remains very true today, as we strive to improve the business’ impact on one another, our community, customers and planet.
We all recycle our cardboard now, without second thought, or take our own bags to the shops. However, decisions we make in our working life can often have a dramatically larger impact. We should all do both.
Our approach is to produce a technically superior, well-engineered product that is made specifically for your project, with materials that have been responsibly sourced. We aim to make everything maintainable. When the product comes to the end of its first life, give it back to us and we’ll ReNew it. We won’t throw it away and make another one, using all the same materials. We will try and make a case for its renovation/upgrade. Then we’ll strip it down, recycle the parts that need replacing and bring it back to life.
Join us in this important movement. Feel better about initiating new product for new places, to make beautiful new spaces. Seek opportunities to ReNew rather than buy new. Demand that we honour our 5 year warranty and further 20 year duty of care. Help us honour our pledge: to use our business as a force for good, to create benefit for all stakeholders.