COMPANY OF THE MONTH, FEBRUARY 2015

Innovation is the weapon to fight the crisis. If Vasileios Baris keeps his activity and clients it is because he hasn’t give up on his efforts. In fact, he took the road of innovation to propose in Greece, competitive innovating products produced in Greece. The logic followed by Mr. Baris is iron and unfortunately not all actors of the market have implemented it: empowering local market by creating more competitiveness. This is how the LEDs of Patras are evolving, perseverance and innovation.

MissBlue: How and why did you start Baris Light?
Vasileios Baris: Baris Light is the continuation of “Electrosynthesi” founded in 1998 with the exact same object and vision. The company “Electrosynthesi” managed to develop newfound then LED technology during the first 10 years of the millenary and to train its staff and customers with patience and perseverance in the then new technology. We quickly recognize the advantages of LED and researched and developed products that serve original architectural lighting and outdoors. What we then prompted to create beginning 2009, The ability of the company Baris Light itself as a legal form to open the horizons of Europe and exports, was what prompted us to create it beginning of 2009.

So you sell LED and fiber optics, why do we consider them green?
The term ecological product as you can understand is multidimensional, I could simply tell you that it’s not a load for the environment or better they are less then those products they came to replace. Here it’s worth noting that the purpose of a company is to use new technologies to enhance the quality of human life. LEDs give us the ability to create quality light and a more normal day-to-day life. For example: The lighting in most offices even today uses fluorescent lamps. Changing these lamps with a quality LED lighting technology you will directly see the change on the people working in this space, the environment will be more pleasant; the “frequency” of lighting with fluorescent which fatigues the eyes of the employees disappeared, the purity which seems the index CRI in an LED lamp helps us to see objects with their real color and unfiltered. Finally when the time comes for recycling we are not dealing with a chemical product but with an electronic device, which is recycled much more easily and without risk to the end user.

Often we hear that ecological bulbs are more expensive. Is this a reality today? And why is there such a difference?
In the early 2010’ yes and it was a determining factor in whether someone will buy LED bulbs or economical bulb. But today I can assure you that the prices are at a level that if one compares, to replace a 60W incandescent bulb one would have to purchase a 15W bulb economy which costs approximately 4.50 to 5.30 Euros or a lamp LED 6W costing about 6.00 Euro, so the difference is too small now.

You produce your own products. Which ones?
We manufacture our own lighting since 2006. Our range of lighting covers many of the needs of professional and home lighting. Our outdoor and pool lightings revealed us as a manufacturing LED lighting company. Then we developed products for interior lightings having always in mind the high standards in quality of light.

Your production responds to environmental criteria? If yes, which?
Our company is fully aligned with the RoHS standard having selected raw materials with the corresponding criteria.

What savings allow the replacement of a standard bulb with a LED?
A LED lamp offers today about 60-70% savings in energy.

In Greece, has their use grown?
The reality is that people in Greece buy today LED but does not have the proper information on qualitative and technical characteristics to which they should given weight depending on the application. We are confident, however, that very soon the situation will change because the new generation is thirsty for information and continuously trained in.

What is your opinion on the Environment in Greece? / What do you do to protect it (in addition to selling, in your personal life and in the office)?
My personal life has changed year by year as to my conscience for the environment. Starting from the house where the garbage bins became two (recyclable and non-recyclable), at the company where the use of paper in printers has dropped to 80% since electronic storage and sending electronic documents is easier and accepted by everyone.

Did you feel the effects of the economic crisis of Greece? What are the difficulties you are experiencing?
Our company as you know is 100% Greek and its clients are 70% Greeks and 30% from European Countries. As you can understand our economic crisis affected directly the company. First of all, in order to face the problem in Greece, our own consciousness focused on strengthening local market preferring Greek products and creating products as respectable as our competitors in the industry.

How would you describe the financial development of Baris Light;
Baris Light was financed all these years in equity and not trough a bank lending, which means a lot for the company as it continues to produce and remain active in the field with authority and dignity, but also with respect to its customers.

Thank you so much Mr. Baris, all the best in the future.

Camille Delcour (www.missblue.org) Friday 30th May 2014

You can find all the products on Baris Light’s official website but also on the showroom in Patras: Store at the Dymaion Cost 3, 26222 Patra, Greece.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPANY

Industry: applications of LED technology and products of optic fiber’s lighting – selling products and lighting studies.

Products and services’ characteristics: the company Baris Light sells and manufactures lighting fixtures with high-energy efficiency and high technical specifications. It offers products for all areas: business, home, garden, pools and outdoors. The company is based in Patras, and offers also to its customers who are interested to make lighting design evaluation to have a better implementation of lighting in their space.

READ FURTHER: The RoHS Directive

The RoHS Directive is in force since February 2003 and aims to reduce the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (the RoHS Directive 2002/95 / EC). This standard requires the creation of collection systems, where consumers return electronic waste free. The goal of these systems is to increase the recycling and / or reuse of these products. It also requires the replacement of heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium and flame-retardants such as polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) with safer alternatives.