Seeing health and wellbeing in a new light

October 27, 2020

The time is right for lighting to take its place in our health and wellbeing toolkit

At Signify, sustainability is core to everything we do. Our business and consumer customers expect to work with companies that make a positive contribution. Operating sustainably is not at odds with our growth, but is our guiding direction and competitive advantage

With this in mind, we have identified five strategic areas where we will grow our business while furthering our contribution to a better and more sustainable world. These five growth areas are defined based on the major trends facing society, and on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We’ve already published posts on Climate Action, Circularity, and Food Availability.

Lighting for wellbeing

Do you notice a change in your mood as the days begin to get shorter? Or have you ever felt a rush of positive energy when you wake up to a beautiful, sunny day? If so, you’ve already experienced the incredible impact light can have on our mood, our productivity, and our sense of wellbeing.

But, while we don’t question the importance of clean air or a comfortable room temperature, our attention to light as a wellbeing tool remains largely untapped. It’s time for that to change.

Let the sunshine in

We spend an average of 90% of our time indoors. In truth, it wouldn’t hurt most of us to take a walk outside a little more often. But while we can’t always dictate our surroundings, the power of light can transform the rooms where we spend most of our time into happier and healthier places to be.

The power of light can transform the rooms where we spend most of our time into happier and healthier places to be."

The impact can be huge. Light is essential to our quality of life. It commands the way we see and experience the world around us, contributing to our comfort and our ability to perform tasks. Our eyesight deteriorates as we age, but we’ve learned that the majority of people don’t take care of their eyes with regular eye tests. Having the right workplace lighting will become increasingly important to an aging workforce, both for eye health and comfort, and for people’s ability to get the job done.

A boy studying indoors with the right lighting

Easy on your eyes

Taking care of our eyes should continue at home, too. We designed our Philips LED EyeComfort range to set a standard for how LEDs should perform: avoiding common problems like flickering, glare or an uncomfortable color temperature. These seemingly small issues can cause anything from minor irritation to physical headaches and effects on certain health conditions.

And light isn’t just an aid to the way we see things. As lighting technology has developed, we’re becoming increasingly aware of the biological effects of light and the very real health implications of our indoor lifestyles.

Lighting for health and wellbeing looks beyond the visual impact of light to how light affects us biologically and emotionally”

Lighting for health and wellbeing looks beyond the visual impact of light to how it affects us biologically, guiding our circadian rhythm and affecting our production of hormones like melatonin, which tells us when it’s time to sleep. Or cortisol, which warns us to be alert.

Our connected lighting products from Philips Hue and WiZ tap into this power, helping people create the right ambiance at home, wake and sleep naturally, and optimize our lighting for activities like reading, concentration and relaxation.

Our NatureConnect by Signify proposition is built on proven Biophilic Design principles to reconnect us to the outside world. It brings the benefits of natural light indoors to create healthy, engaging and inspiring workplace environments.

A woman sporting and stretching outdoors

A health crisis

Light and wellbeing certainly go together. But light has another function that has taken on a new significance in 2020: the power of germicidal UV-C light to disinfect. UV-C has been used for over 40 years and is known to be effective as a disinfectant for air, surfaces and water.

Signify’s UV-C products range from disinfection chambers that can be used to disinfect small objects and equipment, to upper air ceiling-mounted systems that disinfect air as it passes overhead. These devices use an invisible part of the UV spectrum to effectively deactivate microorganisms like bacteria and viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19.

Signify’s response to the global pandemic has included increasing our manufacturing capacity by a factor of eight to make sure that these important devices are available to the people and facilities that need them most.

As a global population, we’re more aware of our health and wellbeing needs than ever before. We seek out high-quality foods that nourish us, take exercise, and consume an explosion of books, apps and podcasts designed to care for our mental health and productivity. We decorate our rooms with colors and soothing sounds, relentlessly declutter, and reward ourselves with treats that make us feel good.

With connected lighting technology making its way from commercial spaces into our homes, and companies like Signify taking a strong interest in the psychological and physiological impacts of light, lighting is ready to take on a new significance in our continuing drive towards happiness, healthfulness, and productivity.

About the author:

Cristina Tanase

General manager NatureConnect, Signify

For further information, please contact:

Signify Global Integrated Communications
Neil Pattie
Tel: + 31 6 15 08 48 17
Email: neil.pattie@signify.com

About Signify

Signify (Euronext: LIGHT) is the world leader in lighting for professionals, consumers and the Internet of Things. Our Philips products, Interact systems and data-enabled services, deliver business value and transform life in homes, buildings and public spaces. In 2023, we had sales of EUR 6.7 billion, approximately 32,000 employees and a presence in over 70 countries. We unlock the extraordinary potential of light for brighter lives and a better world. We have been in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index since our IPO for seven consecutive years and have achieved the EcoVadis Platinum rating for four consecutive years, placing Signify in the top one percent of companies assessed. News from Signify can be found in the Newsroom, on X, LinkedIn and Instagram. Information for investors is located on the Investor Relations page.

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