Products
Linear Pendant Light Fixtures
Headquarters
7 Creek Parkway
Suite 700
Boothwyn, PA 19061
United States
Web
https://lightly.com
On a mission to accelerate the lighting industry's transition to sustainable design, we challenge ourselves to design the lowest embodied carbon, non-toxic lighting solutions. Our products contain no metal, plastic, or glass in their housings. Instead they are natural wood, wool and hemp, red-list free, and accompanied by 3rd party verified sustainability documentation.

For several decades, the discussion about sustainability in lighting has been focused on energy efficiency. As other products such as flooring and furniture have been scrutinized for their material sustainability, lighting has been treated as an exception. However, we believe lighting should be scrutinized in the same way, and the topic of sustainability should include an analysis of embodied carbon and toxic materials.

Today, architectural light fixtures are more energy efficient and longer lasting than ever. However, they are made from primarily metals and plastics. Raw aluminum used for fixture housings may be recyclable, but requires an oven burning at over 1000 degrees to melt and shape, consuming a ton of energy. Plastic used for optics and diffusers is made in oil refineries, releasing toxic chemicals into the environment that will eventually end up in a landfill or polluting our oceans. Although as an industry we are doing a great job conserving electricity during the operational lifetime of our products, there is a need for improvements in the sourcing, manufacturing, and end-of-life considerations of our creations.

Most lighting products are needlessly made from steel, aluminum, and plastic. However, there are many natural, renewable alternatives that work just as well for fixture housings, mounting hardware, and optics. Our design process started with the creation of a sustainable material library and laboratory where our engineers could play with the most sustainable materials available, and start to shape new materials into familiar solutions. Wood, wool, and hemp are the most prevalent materials in Lightly products.

It is the responsibility of the manufacturing community to design sustainable alternatives to commonly used products. However, the design community holds the power to pressure manufacturers into doing so by specifying sustainable products whenever possible, and demanding 3rd party verified sustainability information about those products.

There is a simple way to change the industry. Reallocate money away from unsustainable products, and invest that money in sustainably designed products instead. Changing the products specified on your current projects is a good start. At scale, this will force manufacturers to either adapt, or fall behind.

In an attempt to cut costs, many other lighting manufacturers have outsourced their supply chains to east Asia. This may decrease component costs, but it increases the amount of energy used to transport components back to their manufacturing facilities. At Lightly, we source our components locally, decreasing our carbon footprint while supporting our local economies.

The processes used for assembling, finishing, and packaging light fixtures are often time-consuming, toxic, and wasteful. Lightly products are assembled by hand to reduce energy consumption, and are cleverly designed with the fewest number of components to accelerate the assembly process. Our wood paints and finishes are VOC-free, and safely edible (if you’re into that), and our packaging is recyclable.

When you specify Lightly instead of traditional metal and plastic products, you are accelerating the sustainability movement.

Latest updates

  1. Lightly Named Winner of L-Prize Prototype Phase by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

    Exciting update! lightly has proudly secured the prestigious L-prize! We were announced one of...
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