Philips Lighting has helped to transform the Czech Republic headquarters of energy company innogy by installing an LED lighting system tuned to support the circadian rhythms of innogy’s office staff, including stimulating their energy levels at set times in the day.
Employees enjoy a comfortable bright light, similar to natural daylight, to start their day and after lunch. This helps to stimulate energy levels, enhance workplace comfort, and vision, supporting a sense of wellbeing and performance. Philips likens the stimulus from the “human-centric lighting” fixtures to a strong cup of coffee.
In November 2017, innogy completed a deep renovation of 10,000-sq-m of office space at its Czech Republic headquarters at Limuzská, Prague. The company went from a traditional closed office environment to open plan and seized the opportunity to create a work environment that enhance the comfort, wellbeing, and productivity of its 550 office employees. Lighting played a key part of the renovation, which also involved a new restaurant, furniture, healthy food, kitchens, and creativity spaces.
Philips Lighting installed a networked lighting system consisting of approximately 2,000 Philips LED luminaires. These include 860 Philips PowerBalance tunable white ceiling fixtures and 96 Philips LuxSpace tunable white downlights, programmed to provide different light settings at various times of the day. The subtle differences in the color temperature and intensity of the lighting also supports eye comfort and may be personalized by employees to suit specific tasks. While the emphasis of the lighting system is on enhancing employee comfort, it is also helping to improve operational efficiency through remote monitoring and maintenance.
Two Thumbs Up from Employees
“We wanted to create an outstanding environment for our employees. At the beginning of the day the office lights mimic natural daylight, providing a useful energy boost. The light levels decrease until after lunch when we give another boost to help staff over the post-lunch energy dip. Nearly 80% of employees surveyed described the new lighting as better or much better than the previous fluorescent tube lighting, while 60% agreed that it contributed to a place in which they wanted to work,” says Tomáš Michna, senior manager for facility and services at innogy Czech Republic, in a release.
Ji?í Tourek, Country Manager Czech Republic at, Philips Lighting, says, “We’ve taken our knowledge of how light physiologically benefits people from successful projects in hospitals and schools and applied it to the offices space. We know that exposure to a certain comfortable bright light setting for one-hour can provide a mild energy stimulus similar to a cup of coffee and supports wakefulness. Similarly, other light settings can aid relaxation or help people to wind down before lunch or going home.”
While the lighting is designed to complement people’s natural circadian rhythms, employees at innogy may, at any time, override the light settings, tailoring the light to their needs or specific work tasks, using a wall-mounted Philips Antumbra Dynalite control. This touch-button control enables control of lighting and blinds, allowing workers to personalize their immediate environment to suit their preferences.
Workplace Satisfaction Is Good for Business
High workplace satisfaction positively correlates with high employee engagement. Independent research reveals that workplace satisfaction makes good business sense as disengaged employees cost organizations an average of USD$3,400 a year for every USD$10,000 in annual salary. The lighting at Limuzská, which 56% of employees found to be easy on the eyes, also contributed to employees rating an improvement in their performance following the renovation.
Saving Energy By Delivering Light When and Where It’s Needed
The installation includes approximately 150 sensors that detect human presence and switch the lights off in a room or area when it is vacated, saving electricity. This combination of energy-efficient LED lighting and controls has enabled innogy to reduce electricity used for lighting by around 50% compared to its previous fluorescent lighting.
