About VLE
VLE
In 2009 Visionary Lighting & Energy India (VLE) a “People before Profit” company was established in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana), India by Dr. Dave & Jenny Irvine-Halliday, the same team that conceived and founded the humanitarian organization, Light Up The World (LUTW) in 1997.
VLE designs & manufactures all of its products in-house in India. It is a company that truly understands its products from conception, through design and manufacture, and finally in use in the home of the client. We are a ‘one-stop shopping’ company with an extensive suite of renewable energy and LED lighting products.
VLE’s lighting systems and renewable energy products have been designed by the best minds in India, for India and the world, and to be attractive to both rural and urban clients. To date VLE products include: Solar-LED Lanterns, Solar-Home Systems, Office & Street Lighting; Down Lights, Solar Inverters, Solar MPPT & PWM Charge Controllers and Solar Pumping.
Our “Freedom” products are so named because their primary purpose is to provide a service that helps free developing world families from poverty.
Mission: As a “People before Profit” company our primary goal is to design and then bring to the developing world market the latest and most appropriate LED Lighting and Renewable Energy technologies.
Vision: To use Renewable Energy and LED Lighting systems to significantly improve the quality of lives of almost a quarter of humanity, by helping families escape the poverty trap through the provision of safe, healthy and affordable energy and lighting services to the maximum number of homes, in the least time, and at the lowest possible cost.
Significance of VLE Logo
Why the White Lotus Flower is the VLE Logo
The white Lotus flower is the only plant to fruit and flower simultaneously as it emerges from the muddy depths. Growing from the mud at the bottom of ponds and streams, the exquisite Lotus flower rises above the water and is usually white or pink with 15 or more oval, spreading petals, and a peculiar, flat seedcase at its center.
The white Lotus opens at dusk (“Darkness to Light”), and is a symbol of the sun, creation, rebirth and also Buddhism. Moreover, because it has buds, blossoms, and seed pods simultaneously on the same plant, it has symbolized the past, present, and future.
The Lotus flower has for thousands of year’s symbolized spiritual enlightenment. Indeed, this flower essence's purpose is to accelerate spiritual evolvement and enhance healing on every level within the system.
In Indian culture, the Lotus flower symbolizes enlightenment, wealth, knowledge, and connection to the divine. It is associated with the goddess of wealth, Maha Lakshmi, who represents purity, prosperity and generosity. She sits on a fully blossomed lotus flower.
In Ancient Egyptian culture, the Lotus flower symbol was called Sesen, and in Egyptian mythology the lotus flower is a symbol of the sun, of creation and rebirth.
The Lotus flower has often been described as the most exquisite wishes of Mother Nature for mankind. The lingering fragrance of the Lotus flowers holds the perfect potential of bringing a tender smile on anybody's lips. The importance of the Lotus flowers is perceived to be so great for mankind that many traditional and spiritual meanings have also been attributed to them. The Lotus flower meanings hold in themselves the secret of happiness and cheerfulness.
The Lotus flower basically symbolizes the clarity of heart as well as the mind. In other words the Lotus flower represents strength, good luck, long life as well as honour and respect. Some scholars have even talked of the Lotus flower being a universal representation of the spiritual presence in human lives.
The Lotus is called "the child of the Universe bearing the likeness of its mother in its bosom,"
Turning to Buddhism, Gautama Buddha has been described as "the flower of the human tree, only opening once in myriads of years but (when) once opened (it) fills the world with the perfume of his wisdom and the honey of his love, from the royal root shall grow a celestial lotus." (E. Schure, "Le Buddha et sa legende," Revue des deux mondes, July 1, 1885, pp. 595-6) As he meditated on life's sufferings beneath the Jambu tree, a woman thought he was a forest god and offered him food; he likened this kindness to drops of dew which gather and eventually fill the calyx of the lotus flower -- a reference to the mantram:
Om mani padme hum, the life of all is a dewdrop or "jewel at the heart of the lotus."
VLE’s mission is more than just lighting up a room – it is fundamentally about illuminating lives and helping to change futures and destinies. It is also about providing choices - which is why the white lotus is such a beautiful and appropriate logo!
LUTW
LUTW (www.lutw.org) was the first international humanitarian organization dedicated to illuminating the lives of the world's poor by providing affordable, safe, healthy, efficient, and environmentally responsible lighting – using LEDs.
In 1997, Dr. Dave Irvine-Halliday, a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada had the vision to use LED lighting to bring practical, economical, and environmentally safe lighting to the developing world. While on sabbatical in Nepal, Dave visited local villages and was struck by the poor conditions of the people. Most of them were relying on kerosene lamps which were dangerous, produced little light and filled the homes with unhealthy smoke. As the annual income of the Nepalese villagers averaged $200 USD, Dave realized that there was a great need for simple, safe, healthy, affordable and rugged lighting.
Dave, who had been working with LEDs for more than two decades, spent most of 1997 and 1998 trying to make an acceptable white light from various combinations of colored indicator LEDs. He succeeded in making white light but it was simply not bright enough to be of any practical use in the developing world. Nichia, a Japanese company, had invented a bright White LED sometime earlier and when Dave learned of it he immediately requested samples. The 'Eureka' moment occurred when Dave and his colleague, John Shelley, powered up his first White Light Emitting Diode (WLED) in his lab in 1998 - “Good God, John, a child could read by the light of a single LED!”
In 1999, Dave and his wife, Jenny, tested their prototype WLED lamps in anumber of Nepali villages and the response from the villagers was so absolutely positive that they knew what they'd be doing with the rest of their lives. In 2000, they returned to Kathmandu with their son Gregor and with the assistance of their Nepali friend, Muni Raj Upadhyaya, lit the first four villages in the world with WLED lighting, thus laying the pioneering origins for the development of LUTW into a global lighting initiative.
In 2001 villages were lit in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, and LUTW partners were simultaneously lighting villages in Guatemala, Irian Jaya and Bolivia.
Together with Ken Robertson, Roy Moore and Pauline Cummings, the Light Up The World Foundation was established as a legal entity in 2002. From a singular idea born among the poor, LUTW has grown into a global humanitarian organization reaching out to even the remotest areas of the world.
Through generous support from interested individuals, corporations, host country organizations, international foundations, industrial partners and numerous awards, LUTW has brought light to more than 30,000 homes, schools, hospitals, businesses, community centres, temples etc. in 54 countries throughout the developing world from Afghanistan to Zambia. More than 1.2 Million people have been impacted directly by this new and innovative approach to development.
LUTW is a global leader in bringing LED Lighting to the Developing World.
Awards
Finalist IET Innovation Awards, London, UK (2010)
Engineering Institute of Canada, K.Y. Lo Medal (2008)
Honorary Doctorate, Aberdeen University, Scotland (2006)
Community Service Award, University of Calgary Faculty Association (2006)
Champion of the Schulich School of Engineering Award, University of Calgary (2006)
Centennial Medal Award, Alberta Government (2005)
TIME Canada Magazine Heroes Award (2005)
Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal (MSM), Canadian Government (2005)
YMCA Calgary Peace Medal Award (2004)
Alberta Science & Technology (ASTech) Award - Outstanding Achievement in Applied Technology and Innovation Award (2004)
Reader’s Digest Canadian Hero of the Year Award (2004)
Alberta Emerald foundation Award Environmental Excellence (2004)
Individual Signature Award, City of Calgary (2004)
Celebration of Excellence Award, University of Calgary (2004)
Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy – Light, short listed & received a minor award (2003)
Saatchi and Saatchi Award Laureate (2003)
Tech Museum Award Laureate (2002)
Rolex Award Laureate (2002)
University of Calgary President’s Internationalization Achievement Award (2002)
Teaching Excellence Award, University of Calgary (2001)
Third Millennium Medal for “Outstanding Achievements and Contributions”, Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineering (2000)
Summit Award for Community Service, Association for Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (2000)
Mentor of the Millennium Award, Alberta Women’s Science Network (2000)