Sustainable City Lighting

Today is the start of a week long festival in London which hopes to highlight the importance of sustainable lighting design in the night-time urban environment.

Several sites, in and around the Pool of London, (between London Bridge and Tower Bridge), will be lit from February 7th - 14th in an energy efficient way to show the power of light in the city. What is interesting about this is that the event will be audited for its energy consumption and its overall environmental impact – so not just a decoration fest.

The festival began last year and attracted a great deal of interest.

Paul James, editor of Architectural Lighting magazine comments, “Although we understand that energy use is a 'burning issue', we need light to live and as our lifestyles evolve, the benefits of good urban lighting are undeniable. The perception is that architectural lighting leads to wasted energy and light pollution. However, the majority of the lighting industry continually strives to tackle the issue of energy.”

One of the other main objectives of the event is highlighting the unnecessary lighting of office space at night. If you are in London this week watch out for some innovation. More details on the website: www.switchedonlondon.com