From now 2 years, I have tried to collect the different initiatives all over the world about sustainability that applies to our automotive lighting ecosystem. Every 6 months I am publishing articles, interviews, summaries about these 4 main pillars of the 4R (Reduce – Reuse – Recycle – Repair).
Reduce is an important pillar for our industry. Different studies have shown that around 70% of the C02 emissions are produced during the vehicle lamp usage, due to electricity consumptions. How to reduce consumption by energy saving, optical efficient improvement (optical system and light source itself), better lamp usage by software management, is something more and more important. Jean Paul Ravier read the whole ISAL2025 Proceeding book and tried to summarize all the initiatives with this focus (Hyundai Mobis, Odelo, ams Osram, Nichia, Stellantis, OPmobility, Focuslight, TU Dortmund, Yeungnam University, Valeo, TU Darmstadt, Paderborn Univeristy, Fraunhofer).
Reuse – Recycle – Repair is the other important pillar, not related to the use phase, but to the lamp production phase. As mentioned by Mino Yamamoto during DVN Munich 2025, 80% of the job is done during the design phase. With the right design rule, you can develop a product that will be easy (or easier) to repair, to dismount, to recycle. In the newsletter this week, Valeo is explaining how they have defined rules on electronics and PCBs to make them repairable. Mercedes is also showing how to have a modular headlamp approach with mono-material usage with its “Tomorrow XX” Initiative. With remanufacturing programs, Gregory Planche from Valeo is explaining how to reduce carbon footprint by up to 70%. To know a bit more about lamp remanufacturing, Mino Yamamoto is explaining in a video how it works at Valeo Angers, France, in partnership with Stellantis, to remanufacture headlamps.
During the DVN Munich workshop in two weeks, we will continue this discussion. To this end, we are organizing a dedicated deep-dive session on automotive lighting sustainability one day prior to the main event, on February 3. Around 50 experts from OEMs, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers will come together to exchange views, take stock of existing initiatives, and identify what is still missing today. The objective is to consolidate these insights and share a clear summary with all DVN Munich participants during the main event on February 5, with the ambition of bringing the entire lighting community on board around a common vision (under the guidance of DVN Senior Advisor Gerd Banhmuller).
We are also finally happy today to share the final agenda of DVN Munich event. We are fully booked with 64 exhibitors that show how networking and community is something important nowadays. You can now register to join our event.
On February 3, following the Sustainability deep-dive (and the External Display deep-dive), we are also pleased to invite DVN members to a VIP cocktail at Motorworld starting at 6:00 pm (one participant per company). Please feel free to contact me if you plan to attend.
