TM66

CIBSE TM66 Creating a circular economy in the lighting industry was launched in 2021 and it describes a Circular Economy’s main aims, how it can be achieved in the lighting industry and what its practice will mean to the different branches of our industry like specifiers, manufacturers, contractors and Facilities Managers.

Written by CIBSE's lighting division, the Society of Light and Lighting, TM66 includes a Circular Economy Assessment Method for Manufacturing (CEAM-Make). CEAM-Make's list of questions, the majority of which ask for back-up evidence, is split into four sections.

  • Product Design: covering topics such as design for long life and repair.
  • Materials: covering topics like usage of recyclable materials rather than virgin.
  • Manufacturing: covering topics like additive and subtractive techniques and localisation.
  • Ecosystem: covering topics like repair or upgrade services to complement circular economy design and manufacturing.

The outcome of the assessment is a single figure rating by which product comparisons can be made.


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Whilst the concepts behind TM66 are useful for all stakeholders in the lighting industry, the CEAM tool was specifically created to be used by manufacturers (CEAM-Make) to assess their products, and specifiers (CEAM-Specify) to compare and evaluate choices based on circularity principles.

Currently, the most adopted business model is based on the make-use-waste approach (a linear economy), which produces waste and consumes resources for every new product put on the market. As space and resources on Earth are finite, it is immediately clear that this model is not sustainable. Circular Economies are about keeping existing products in use, to minimise and ideally avoid material extracted from the earth’s crust, waste generated and emissions during all the stages involved.

According to the latest EcoDesign regulations, it is a requirement that lamps and control gear should be replaceable within a luminaire so their lives can be extended via easy maintenance and repair. This is a good example of a design practice towards a circular economy.

Operational carbon refers to greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use of a product. For a luminaire, this would refer to emissions deriving from the electricity needed to power the luminaire.

Stoane Lighting welcome TM66 and its contribution to a more sustainable lighting industry. We have always tried to practice Circular Economy principles but to have an official industry checklist to interrogate our designs and service we consider a major step forwards. Thanks to TM66 we were able to implement changes in our practice, with the aim of improving our CEAM score.

A TM66 score demonstrates a product's performance in the context of a circular economy and we believe it will become an important support tool for specification. For this reason, a downloadable report of TM66 scores is available for our entire standard product series. We commit to review our TM66 scores yearly, to be able to capture changes in our methods and how they reflect on the scores.

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In summary

We use TM66 not only to report, but also to improve our products, thanks to the ability to trace scores back to each question and understand where improvements can be made.

With the introduction of the Assured scheme by the Lighting Industry Association in collaboration with CIBSE, which examines the products and associated TM66 scores, a layer of trustworthiness can also be added to the assessment results.

We firmly believe in the importance of remanufacturing to ensure that we move towards a more circular economy. Thanks to TM66 we are able to assess and show that our products are suitable to be repaired, remanufactured or upgraded; that our local supply chain will be able to easily provide spare parts and that our products can be easily disassembled and reassembled to carry out repair operations.