UL Environment, Inc. announced initiation of a collaborative effort to develop sustainability standards for indoor and outdoor lighting.  These standards will assist consumers, designers, architects and building operators in identifying more sustainable options for interior and exterior light fixtures, LED modules and related lighting components.  The standards will address entire luminaires, including reflector, aperture, outer shell and connection to a power source.  The standards will be based on environmental assessment of a product's entire life cycle, from raw materials to manufacture, use and disposal.

"According to the U.S. Department of Energy, an average household dedicates 11 percent of its energy budget to lighting," said Stephen Wenc, president of UL Environment, Inc.  "LED modules alone have potential to reduce lighting electricity demand in the U.S. by one third and deliver savings of $265 billion by 2027—but lighting solutions can go beyond energy and cost savings.  This effort supports the development of more sustainable options for consumers based on a holistic evaluation of environmental performance in a variety of areas beyond efficiency."

UL Environment's sustainability standards will consider environmental elements such as energy efficiency and product materials, manufacturing process and recyclability.  The standards will set minimum environmental requirements and create a progressive and tiered structure that makes it possible for manufacturers to highlight their sustainability achievements. 

"Sustainability is a consideration of growing importance for lighting designers and engineers," said Terry McGowan, Director of Engineering for the American Lighting Association. "Companies have long embraced energy efficiency as an environmental benefit, but the industry has lacked guidance on how to develop and incorporate a truly sustainable option for lighting.  This standards effort will go a long way towards defining the sustainability characteristics of our industry and all the industries that rely on lighting for operations."

Development of the standards will draw upon input from UL Environment's Standard Technical Panels (STPs) comprised of stakeholders such as manufacturers, government entities, non-governmental organizations and consumer interest groups. 

This standards effort continues UL's lighting industry leadership, which includes the development and publication of LED Safety Standard UL 8750 in late 2009.  UL Environment expects initial drafts of the lighting sustainability standards to be completed in 2010. 

For more information, visit http://www.ulenvironment.com/.