Light Up Your Life The Smart Way

Gazing out the cockpit window when your plane leaves a New York City Airport you witness Innumerable rows of dotted light, overflowing into an electronic blanket of illumination, stretching far beyond your field of vision.

Why do you see this? Why are all these lights being used to light up the sky?

These strings of artificial light; synonymous with modern life are being used, in part, to light up a dark sky. This misuse of illumination means Billions of dissipated dollars and a long term environmental impact. The International Dark-Sky Association, a not for profit industry advocacy group, estimates that 30% of all US outdoor lighting is wasted by being directed skyward. Conservatively estimated at $1.5 Billion in wasted electricity yearly, this 30% requires the needless burning of 6,000,000 tons of coal every year. Wasted or poor indoor lighting accounts for additional monetary and energy loses. Improper lighting can also have a negative psychosocial impact being attributed to everything from depression to insomnia to eye strain.

In a world obsessed with efficiency and cost, improper lighting is a growing concern. Groups of involved professionals are organizing around the world to address and educate the public about the problems of improper lighting use, groups like the Illuminating Engineers Society of North America (IESNA). The IESNA is a consortium of Lighting Designers, Engineers, Architects and Lighting Manufacturers. I attended a lecture series sponsored on their behalf at the NYU school of architecture, entitled: The Quality of the Visual Environment Lecture Series: It Ain't Just Foot-candles Any More! Given by tefan Graf,- a professional lighting designer from the Michigan based lighting design firm, Illuminart.