Philips Lighting pledges to the world’s energy ministers to sell more than two billion LED light bulbs by 2020

• Achieving goal would save energy equivalent to decommissioning 60 medium-sized coal-fired power stations
• biggest manufacturer of energy efficient LED lights reaffirms commitment to 100% carbon neutrality by 2020

San Francisco, USA – Leaders from Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting, will today meet with Energy Ministers attending the seventh Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM7) summit in San Francisco, where the company will announce a commitment to sell more than two billion¹ energy efficient LED light bulbs by 2020. Reaching this goal is estimated to save an amount of energy equivalent to that generated by 60 medium-sized coal-fired power stations with emissions equivalent to those from 24 million cars by 2020. The company will also reaffirm its pledge to make its global operations carbon neutral by 2020 and say that it expects electricity for its US operations to be 100% from renewable sources later this year.

The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) is a forum of countries working together to accelerate the global transition to clean energy. Speaking later today at its summit in San Francisco, Bill Bien, Head of Strategy for Philips Lighting commented, “We plan to turn the agreement at the COP21 UN Climate Change Summit in Paris into tangible action. Energy efficiency is the low-hanging fruit in the fight against climate change. Delivering on this pledge will be positive for our environment as well as the global economy, resulting in energy savings of around EUR 12 billion annually by 2020 that could be invested elsewhere. The clock is ticking for humanity -- action is needed now before it’s too late.”

The Philips Lighting pledge supports the Global Lighting Challenge – a campaign to deploy 10 billion high efficiency, high quality affordable light bulbs (such as LED) as soon as possible to combat climate change. The campaign was launched last December by the Clean Energy Ministerial at the COP21 UN Climate Change Summit.

Committed to becoming carbon neutral

At the CEM7 summit Philips Lighting will call upon other companies to follow its lead and accept the challenge of becoming a carbon neutral company.  At COP21, Royal Philips pledged to become a carbon neutral company and purchase all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Philips Lighting reaffirms both of these commitments and offers to share its experience and learnings with other organizations as it works to meet these challenges. 

Key to achieving carbon neutrality is the use of energy from renewables and driving down carbon emissions in operations and logistics. Philips Lighting reported progress in the US where it expects electricity for its operation to be 100% carbon neutral this year thanks to a power purchase agreement from the Hidalgo Wind Farm in McCook, Texas.

“It’s gratifying to produce LED light bulbs and connected lighting systems that reduce energy consumption by up to 80% compared to conventional lighting. But we must be accountable for our own footprint too – that’s why we’re committed to being carbon neutral by the end of the decade. To do this we’ve had to re-examine everything we do: our operations, processes and supply chain. I’m pleased to report we’re well on the way to achieving this goal and last year increased our use of renewables globally to 60% ²,”said Bien.

¹The more than two billion LED bulbs pledge by Philips Lighting is calculated from 2015-2020 (inclusive).

² This figure relates to the period 2007-2015 and is in line with the information provided in the Royal Philips Annual Report 2015.

For further information, please contact:

Melissa Kanter
Philips Lighting
Tel: +1 718 309 4195
E-mail: melissa.kanter@philips.com

Neil Pattie           
Philips Lighting
Tel: +31 615 08 48 17
E-mail: neil.pattie@philips.com

About Philips Lighting

Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT) is a global leader in lighting products, systems and services. Our understanding of how lighting positively affects people coupled with our deep technological know-how enable us to deliver digital lighting innovations that unlock new business value, deliver rich user experiences and help to improve lives. Serving professional and consumer markets, we sell more energy efficient LED lighting than any other company. We lead the industry in connected lighting systems and services, leveraging the Internet of Things to take light beyond illumination and transform homes, buildings and urban spaces. In 2015, we had sales of EUR 7.4 billion and currently we have approximately 36,000 employees in over 70 countries. News from Philips Lighting is located at http://www.newsroom.lighting.philips.com

About Clean Energy Ministerial

The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) is a forum of the world’s largest and most forward-leaning countries working together to accelerate the global transition to clean energy. Launched in 2010, the United States hosted the first ministerial meeting in Washington, DC, with subsequent meetings hosted by the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, India, Korea, and Mexico. At the Mexico meeting in May of 2015, President Barack Obama announced that California would host the Seventh Clean Energy Ministerial. The Clean Energy Ministerial is the follow-up meeting to the COP21 UN Convention of Parties climate change talks last December in Paris. The participating energy ministries include Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, the European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. http://www.cem7.org/

Forward-looking Information

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