A Standard for Managing Outdoor Lighting’s Negative Impacts

With the adoption of LEDs, the reduced energy impacts of lighting are now taken for granted, but there are still a lot of old fluorescent and first generation LEDs on the market. And LED lighting is still complicated, especially for outdoor applications. How do you balance efficacy (lighting energy performance, measured in lumens per watt or lpw) with light quality (such as color and tunability) and also consider the potential health and environmental impacts of adding what is essentially daylight into a world that needs darkness and rest? And how do you sort through all the countless lighting products on the market to find one that addresses these concerns and fits your application? It’s a lot to ask.

The nonprofit Design Lights Consortium (DLC) addresses these issues by creating performance standards for lighting. Products from participating manufacturers that meet these criteria are then listed on the organization’s Qualified Product List (QPL).