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Philips Lighting an autonomous company; pledges 2 billion LED bulbs by 2020

September 9, 2016 | By Anthony Capkun


Bill Bien, head of strategy, speaking at the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial. Photo courtesy Philips Lighting.

September 9, 2016 – As Spring was coming to a close, some big news came out of the lighting world involving the 3-billion EUR initial public offering (IPO) of global player Philips Lighting on the Euronext in Amsterdam as a separately listed company.

According to Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips, “This strategic milestone will allow Royal Philips to focus on the fast-growing health technology market”.

We couldn’t ethically publish any information about the IPO at the time, because doing so:

[…] might constitute a violation of the local securities laws or regulations […]

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Shortly after the IPO, leaders from Philips Lighting met with energy ministers attending the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM7) summit in San Francisco, Calif., where the company announced a commitment to sell more than two billion LED light bulbs by 2020.

“It’s gratifying to produce LED light bulbs and connected lighting systems that reduce energy consumption by up to 80% compared to conventional lighting,” said Bill Bien, head of strategy for Philips Lighting. “But we must be accountable for our own footprint too […] To do this, we’ve had to re-examine everything we do: our operations, processes and supply chain.”

The company also reaffirmed its pledge to make its global operations carbon neutral by 2020, and expects electricity for its U.S. operations to come 100% from renewable sources later this year.

“Delivering on this pledge will be positive for our environment as well as the global economy, resulting in energy savings of around 12 billion EUR annually by 2020 that could be invested elsewhere,” Bien added.

PHOTO: Bill Bien, head of strategy, speaking at the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial. Photo courtesy Philips Lighting.


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