Delivering the inaugural annual lecture of the Worshipful Company of Lightmongers, he said: ‘We need to find ways of delivering increasingly sophisticated lighting services to the whole of humankind…in ways that cause considerably less impact, which probably needs less total economic activity.

‘Lighting is responsible for anywhere between 16 and 18 per cent of total electricity consumption in the world today, depending on how you do the calculations. So this is an absolutely massive part of the challenge. And although it’s rarely spoken about in those terms, people are beginning to understand that if we are going to make a difference to this story, we have to make a difference on lighting.’

Referring to the barrage of criticism from campaigners over the UK Government’s decision to approve a third runway at Heathrow Airport in London, he pointed out that aviation is responsible for 2 and 4 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions.

‘It’s relatively small in fact. When you compare lighting to these other big sectors, you can begin to see why it is people are focusing suddenly on the need to get lighting right.

‘What we know is that if you back right back before electricity to when people were using whale oil and tallow and candles, the contribution of the lighting industry as a whole has remained astonishingly constant over hundreds of years. It always contributes around 1.7 per cent of total GDP in any one year.

‘This rather amazing statistic was unearthed by Professor [Jeff] Tsao in the paper he wrote in 2010. And I quote: “New applications of increasingly efficient lighting technologies have consistently offset the energy efficiency gains from new lighting technologies almost exactly, leaving the portion proportion of global GDP attributable to lighting essentially unchanged for hundreds of years”.

‘So lighting’s always had this critical part in the economy of human societies at different points, at roughly 1.7 per cent of GDP.

’The problem is, we need to do something about that,’ he told a London audience of lighting executives. ‘I hope this isn’t going to upset people here but we kind of need to get that figure down. Because if we are to have a massive contribution from lighting to addressing this problem, we need to find ways of delivering increasingly sophisticated lighting services to the whole of humankind – not just the rich world – in ways that cause considerably less impact, which probably needs less total economic activity.’

However, he praised the lighting sector for its technological achievements, especially the development of the blue LED by Professor Shuji Nakamura and his team in the 1990s. Quoting the US Department of Energy, he said: ‘ “the widespread introduction of LEDs today will reduce electricity consumption by around 348 TWh by 2027, equal to the output of 44 large power plants, saving more that $30 billion at today’s power prices”. So you can see why this is going to have an impact on GDP. It takes $30 billion of economic activity out of the US economy, that translates through into the economic multipliers.

‘If the Indian government were to replicate the LED roll-out that it is currently undertaking in Pondicherry, it would reduce electricity demand by over 50 TWh and cut consumer bills by over $3 billion. These are just massive changes that are underway now.’

He also highlighted the president of Institute of Physics’ claim that the optimum use of LED lighting could reduce lighting’s share of the global electricity consumption in buildings from 19 per cent to 4 per cent. ‘That translates to the total electricity consumption of Europe.’

It is no secret, as revenues from LEDs fade, that the lighting industry is placing a big pile of gambling chips on the success of the Internet of Things, but the hack marks the second major security breach in as many months, suggesting IoT is not yet ready for the big leagues.

A handful of the world’s top websites were targeted during the attack, including The New York Times, CNN and Amazon, making this the most high profile attack to date and one aimed at disrupting the very fabric of the internet in the United States.

The attack was carried by hijacking thousands of IoT devices, which had previously been infected with malicious code allowing attackers to take control of them. The attackers were then able to perform a denial of service (DDoS) by getting the enslaved devices to flood the chosen websites with messages, causing them to crash.

While a claim of responsibility is yet to be made for the attacks, it has been claimed on Twitter that WikiLeaks were responsible.

A tweet issued by WikiLeaks after the DDoS attack on some of the world’s leading websites.

Earlier in the month American internet provider OVH was targeted in an attack that involved the manipulation of 150,000 IoT devices.

‘Companies are simply not doing enough to improve IoT security and there is a lack of awareness and a certain laziness in their attitude towards the issue,’ Ken Munro of ethical hacking firm Penetration testing and security services, which identifies weaknesses in internet security, told Lux.

The IoT powered onslaughts are worsening because of the release of the Mirai botnet source code into the public domain. The code contains the necessary information needed to hack into IoT devices and ultilise them for use in DDoS attacks.

Security experts are worried that IoT devices are being built upon outdated operating systems using code that has not been properly tested for security loopholes, which hackers will exploit. The devices are then being rushed to market.

Munro believes that IoT manufacturers need to act now to prevent much more serious security breeches in the future.

‘Governments are becoming more and more concerned about the security risks that IoT poses, and the UK, US and EU governments are even considering legislation to compel firms to act,’ Munroe concluded.

The US Congress, for example, is currently mulling installing some kind of consumer protection into law to protect IoT consumer’s privacy, although talks are still at a very early stage, calls to act though are likely to speed up after this latest attack.

The exhibition by international artist Bernardi Roig, working with the University of Creative Arts (Canterbury),  uses life size sculptures made from polyester resin leaning against a wall and covered in 200 of Thorn’s PopPack 58W Battens.  The stark white of the sculpture, combined with the powerful illumination from the fluorescent lamps, creates a dramatic contrast within the surrounding Gothic stained glass window space.  Roig’s work explores themes such as human isolation, loneliness, the limits of knowledge and the body’s deterioration. The artist has created a tense relationship between figure and background, between rational comprehension and spiritual understanding, between artificial light and divine clarity.

Emma Braso, Cultural Programme Curator at University for the Creative Arts, commented  “We are delighted that Thorn has supported this event, the fluorescent lighting is a perfect choice of illumination for this exhibition as it creates a dramatic impact”.

Thorn’s PopPack Batten incorporates a Tridonic PC T8 Pro ballast contained in a white stoved enamel outer to provide a colour rendering index of 80 and luminaire efficacy of 90 lm/w.  The 1500mm luminaire is suitable for a wide range of applications, including unique exhibition displays such as the Sleepless Light Exercises.

EU pledges millions to tackle IoT security threat. PLUS: Reykjavik turns off street lights for better aurora view. AND: US speedway becomes first to go all LED. Lux Today October 18 2016

86% of hospitality professionals believe lighting plays a very important role in the customer experience. The findings of the survey, sponsored by Megaman, reveal that lighting is big business in the hospitality sector:

The findings show that good lighting encourages guests to stay longer and come back for more:

Respondents thought a well-lit venue is:

The survey revealed that respondents thought that upfront lighting refurbishment costs are less important than ambience. When making decisions on new lighting in a venue, hospitality professionals say that key considerations are:

Overall, 43% of those surveyed have been involved in a lighting refurbishment in their present or previous venue and said:

Only half of all hospitality professionals (49%) think a halogen lamp ban next year would be a positive change for them, while 36% say it would not affect them at all and 15% think that a ban will have a negative impact on them.

Fred Bass, managing director of Neonlite International, the brand owner of Megaman, said:  “This survey supports what we are seeing in our day-to-day business within the hospitality sector – good quality lighting is appreciated and a well-lit scheme attracts customers who stay longer and spend more.

“However, the one area where I think we are at the cusp of a tipping point is in the understanding of the benefits of LEDs amongst the majority of those in the hospitality sector. Although half of those surveyed say that they think the banning of halogen lights and introduction of LED equivalents would be positive, there is still another half who are unsure.

“As more and more bars, restaurants and hotels experience the benefits of the latest in LED lighting technology, I believe we will see a dramatic sea-change in favour of LEDs.”

An experimental human centric lighting scheme has been installed at Lindeborgskolan school in Malmo, Sweden, aimed at improving pupil performance.

The human centric system replaced a fluorescent lighting scheme, a change which pupils claim has improved their concentration, making them feel more alert throughout the school day.

The automatically changing light variation includes a period of intense rather blue light in the morning, to wake the pupils up, and a warmer light during other parts of the day.

Teachers are able to change the colour intensity of the lighting to create a calming or a stimulating atmosphere when necessary. The human centric scheme has also eradicated flicker.

The new lighting was funded by the Department of Internal Services in the hope of bringing Swedish schools firmly into the twenty first century.

You can find out more about the Malmo project by watching the video above. You can also learn more about the debate surrounding human centric lighting by reading our article: Are we experimenting on school children?