The Future of LED Lighting

In this Season 2 finale episode of the Create the Future podcast we speak to Stephen Rouatt, CEO of the UK & Ireland markets for Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) about innovations in LED lighting. We discuss the innovative ways in which the 2021 QEPrize winning technology is being used today, consider the future uses of LED lighting, and Stephen tells us why engineers often make great entrepreneurs.

We’ll be back in January 2022 with Season 3. In the meantime, subscribe to 'Create the Future' on your podcast app and follow @qeprize on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook so you don’t miss us when we come back!

About the guest

Prior to Signify, Stephen was a Managing Principal at ING Bank, focused on strategy and innovation, and helping launch several fintech ventures. He spent 10 years between McKinsey & Company in their Digital practice, and Accenture in their technology strategy group based in the UK. Stephen is currently a member of several World Economic Forum (WEF) committees related to Engineering & Construction, Infrastructure & Urban Development, and Digital Transformation.

Episode Highlights

• "From an efficiency standpoint, lighting has changed so much. In 100 years we’ve gone from 10 lumens per watt all the way to 200 lumens per watt. There's a lot of places where engineering will continue to have a role in driving increased efficiency, I have no doubt about that."
• "LED lighting has been a phenomenal contributor to reducing the total amount of electricity usage worldwide."
• "Lighting has gone from just illuminating a room to providing physical benefits for people. There’s new applications around infrared, agricultural production, ultraviolet lighting disinfection for combating things like COVID, SARS, MRSA, and one of the more interesting uses of LED lighting is for the transmission of data, Li-Fi."
• "10 years ago lighting took up about around 19% of all electricity usage worldwide. Now, over time with the introduction of LED lighting that’s down to nearly 12%. So even though there's more light points, we're using less electricity for them. The belief is that over the next 5-10 years, we can get that down to about 8%."
• "Growing up, I probably used more LEGO and Meccano… anything, you could basically get your hands on and build. I was also lucky that my dad was one of those people that was constantly fixing things. He also started his own company when I was about six years old, so I basically just grew up around entrepreneurs."
• "The chance to work at a business that invests so much into innovation and has such a culture of creating the new was really interesting for me with my engineering passion."
• "Engineers make often great consultants. Engineering teaches you problem solving, working in teams, numbers, and you really apply all of those things in a consulting role."

Photo by bady abbas on Unsplash