Future Designs carbon careful™ initiative preserves existing luminaires across Crawley schools

Across three secondary schools in the Crawley area, a major lighting refurbishment programme by Future Designs was delivered to update old classroom luminaires to latest technology LED through the carbon careful™ initiative. The project covered Oriel High School, Thomas Bennett Community College and Ifield Community College, all of which were operating with original, fluorescent lighting systems supplied before 2008 by Future Designs.

The original fittings were SCT linear continuous suspended luminaires, manufactured with aluminium low-brightness louvres. Rather than replacing the entire system, a more sustainable and carbon saving solution was applied. Under the carbon careful™ initiative Future Designs provided new LED gear trays which were designed to integrate directly into the existing luminaire profiles, enabling the schools to retain the existing luminaire carcass while benefiting from modern LED performance. This reduced carbon usage, shortened installation times, and avoided the disruption associated with a full replacement scheme.

As part of the visual upgrade, the old louvre assemblies were removed and replaced with a satin etched optics housed within mild steel magnetic frames. This created a cleaner, more contemporary appearance while also improving light distribution throughout teaching spaces. Importantly, this enhancement maintained the original aesthetic of the luminaire while delivering a more robust solution.

To date, a total of 1,019 retrofit LED units have been supplied across the three schools. This includes 416 units for Oriel High School, 316 units for Thomas Bennett Community College and 287 units for Ifield Community College, comprising both mains and emergency versions. Notably, the original installations contained no emergency luminaires. As part of the upgrade, emergency conversion units were introduced within classroom fittings, bringing lighting provision in line with the requirements of BS5266-1.

The energy performance improvements were substantial. Existing fluorescent lamps operated at 33 watts, whereas the retrofit LED solution uses just 14.08 watts per fitting. This delivers an energy saving of 57.33 percent, significantly reducing running costs and supporting each school’s sustainability goals. With each retained fitting containing approximately 9kg of metal, it meant that through the carbon careful™ initiative there was a massive reduction in the amount of iron ore being extracted from the earth’s crust to create mild steel.