Forge, an LED product designer and manufacturer, and Lumileds, an LED technology firm, have partnered to develop dark sky-preserving outdoor lighting solutions. Together, they will develop and offer turnkey solutions that combine Luxeon NightScape technology from Lumileds with Forge’s rapid product realization capabilities.
This partnership, and others like it, comes as a response to regulatory shifts that place the responsibility of limiting blue wavelength emissions and light pollution on manufacturers. These shifts are based on a growing body of research that identifies blue light from LEDs as a disrupting factor in the health of nocturnal wildlife and as a contributor to light pollution, with the British Astronomical Association’s Commission for Dark Skies suggesting that 90% of the U.K.’s population lacks access to the starscape of the night sky due to light pollution or skyglow.
Regulations like Hawaii’s Bill 21 Maui Ordinance, which restricts blue light content in new exterior lighting installations to under 2%, and guidelines like the Institute of Lighting Professionals’ (ILP) GN08/23, which outlines ways to help preserve bat populations, helped guide the goals of the Forge and Lumileds partnership.
Forge and Lumileds are able to provide desirable aesthetics and performance, while the NightScape technology provides a spectral distribution that delivers white light at the highest flux while emitting less than 2% of blue light in the 400-500nm spectrum.
