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We are very happy that Fluxplus has joined as Participant. FluxPlus BV from Tilburg (the Netherlands) is specialized in Human Centric Lighting design and lighting advice for industry, healthcare and top sport. The subsidiary Chrono Eyewear BV is the producer of the successful App controlled Propeaq light glasses that are used during the night shift and to reduce the effects of jet lag. More than 750 Olympic athletes from 14 countries successfully use this innovative product. In the coming years, a healthy lifestyle will become an important phenomenon and daylight and the right artificial light, what the Good Light Group is promoting, will make a major contribution to improving sleep, mood and the metabolism of large groups of people. https://fluxplus.com/

We are very happy that GL OPTIC has joined as Participant. GL Optic is an innovative Polish-German manufacturer of precise light measuring instruments and solutions for general lighting, electronic, automotive and scientific applications. GL OPTIC is very much focused on supporting good light with measurement equipment for the quality aspects of light. GL Optic products are made in Europe, sold and serviced on all continents. https://gloptic.com/

Recently, we welcomed LYS Technologies as Participant of the Good Light Group. Founded in London 2016 with a mission to reimagine how we live and work indoors, LYS Technologies works across wearable technology, data aggregation and analysis and circadian rhythm research. The LYS team is made up of designers, engineers, developers, data-analysts and writers. Together we are working to simplify and make accessible discussions around circadian rhythms. To put it simply, we are working to tackle global sleep disruption by changing people's relationship to the non-visual effects of light. https://lystechnologies.co.uk/pages/about-us-1

LpS Digital is the brand new, unique, and first, digital lighting conference and exhibition 24/7 available to viewers. Due to environmental issues and travel restrictions, the acclaimed LpS Symposium +Expo and Trends in Lighting Forum &Show held in Bregenz, Austria, has been remodeled into the LpS Digital. Jan Denneman has been one of the first presenters to record a presentation for LpS Digital about the importance of Good Light indoors. Summary Our world would not exist without the light and energy of the sun. Homo sapiens has evolved under this sun and therefore it is logical that we still need a lot of daylight to function optimally. Many thousands of years mankind indeed lived outside, but the modern human being spends most of its life indoors. In offices, schools, factories, hospitals, care homes, nursery homes, shops, private homes, trains, cars etc. In those places, light is usually good enough to see, but biologically it is darkness. Our body and brain need much higher lighting levels during daytime to steer important biological processes in the body like for instance the biological clock. Around the turn of the century, important discoveries were done that explain the mechanisms behind the effects of light on people. In 2002, the 3rd photoreceptor in the human eye has been discovered. The Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology in 2017 went to the scientists carried out breakthrough work in the field of chronobiology, the knowledge about 24 hour rhythms and sleep in our body. Irrespective the progress made in these scientific fields, it is currently still not reflected in how we design and light up our indoor spaces. Consequently, mankind still lives in biological darkness. The chronic light shortage has all kinds of bad consequences. People are less concentrated, alert, creative and their cognitive abilities are reduced. The quality of sleep is worse and people develop feelings of depression. Because most people do not have an outdoor job and as a result spend most of their lives indoors, we need to drastically improve the way we design our indoor spaces. Much more daylight needs to enter buildings and the electric lighting needs to compensate for the lack of natural daylight. The LED technology makes this possible in a sustainable way. The future of light is not any longer in energy efficiency alone. The energy efficiency with smart LED systems is already extremely high, and the lighting sector has been one of the highest contributors to energy efficiency and sustainability. The difference in energy efficiency and related cost savings between the lighting companies is small, and does not create a competitive edge. The attempts to change business models towards data and connectivity are only partly successful. The future of lighting is to focus on the real added value of good light. Good light will contribute to the well-being of the billions of people with an indoor job. If these users of indoor light would know and understand how important lighting is for their well-being, they will demand better lighting from building owners, facility managers, etc. This will create a pull for good light. This requires value-added selling capabilities, and communication to a wide public about the benefits of good light indoors. And it also creates an enormous opportunity for new innovations and for companies to create a competitive edge with their solution for Good Light.

Good Light indoors has spectral characteristics that vary according to time of day, personal needs, and specific tasks. In the morning and during daytime, the light spectrum should include a reasonable portion of short wavelengths to support the energizing and revitalizing effects of light. In the evening and at night, the amount of short wavelengths should be diminished to support winding down, a good night of sleep and to prevent disruptions of the day-night rhythm. To create a good lighting design, you need to be able to calculate the ‘melanopic EDI’ vertically at eye level. This parameter is introduced in the international standard CIE S 026:2018 CIE System for Metrology of Optical Radiation for ipRGC-Influenced Responses to Light. The CIE has recently launched a free of charge S 026 Toolbox and S 026 User Guide to support the use of this international standard. A short video has been prepared to give some background information on the Toolbox and some brief instructions on how to use it.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a serious health threat to the world population. In response, governments are implementing a variety of new policies including self-quarantine, self-isolation and social distancing. While medically necessary to limit spread, these new social policies can disrupt many of the stabilizing factors in our lives which support mental health. In close collaboration, the International Society of Bipolar Disorders (ISBD https://www.isbd.org/) Task Force on Chronobiology and Chronotherapy and the Society for Light Treatment and Biologic Rhythms (SLTBR, https://sltbr.org/) developed a list of recommendations to help your body clock to stay on track to help you feel better.

The policies to limit spreading of COVID-19 is ‘stay home’ and ‘work from home’. The consequence is that most people see very little daylight. While it is very important to stay home as much as possible and keep ‘social distance’ all the time, in the Netherlands it is not forbidden to go outside. The Dutch online news site ‘Dokters van Morgen’ published an article to emphasize the importance of getting enough daytime light exposure to keep the biological clock on track, for good sleep quality at night, and better mood. Read the tips (in Dutch) how to see enough Good Light while at the same time stick to the guidelines of the government to limit spreading COVID-19. For more information see https://zorgnu.avrotros.nl/hulp/hulpartikelen/item/werk-je-thuis-voldoende-daglicht-krijgen-is-belangrijk/

In his article (below) in the Dutch magazine “Endocrinology” (credits to tijdschrift Endocrinologie, https://endocrinologie.nl), dr. Aart Mudde sketches the underestimated attention for the epiphysic-hypothalamic system in medical practice. This system is influenced by light and for some critical health aspects high intensities are needed like from sun light, which is missing indoors. The epiphysic-hypothalamic system plays a role in melatonin production and disturbances in melatonin production probably links with diseases like hypertension, diabetes and Alzheimer. Because most of us spend our lives in biological darkness, our inner “Zeitgeber” the SCN which encodes for the circadian rhythm is chronically ‘ill’. There is a relative simple solution: more light indoors during daytime, exactly what the Good Light Group is promoting.

The annual Lighting conference of LED professionals in Bregenz, LpS2020, has been cancelled because of COVID-19. But LpS goes Digital! On September 22nd, 2020 the first digital lighting conference and exhibition will be organized. For more information go to https://www.led-professional-symposium.com/. Or join the conference and/or the exhibition on https://lnkd.in/gkX9zdW. The Good Light Group has been invited to organize one of the digital lectures.

On February 19th, an interesting article was published in the Dutch newspaper NRC with Marijke Gordijn, Board member of the Good Light Group. It describes the importance of good light in office environments. Lighting is often treated as of low importance in offices, but good light can have an enormous influence on sleep quality, alertness during daytime and mood. It is a big contributor to well-being of people. To avoid biological darkness indoors during the day, the lighting levels need to be at least five times higher than the current practice in indoor lighting. This is estimated to be 1000 lux vertical at the level of the eye. For a link to this Dutch article see: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2020/02/19/goed-licht-daar-word-je-beter-van-a3991039 #goodlightgroup #goodlight #lightforwellbeing #biologicaldarkness #humancentriclighting.

Today, we welcomed the Eindhoven University of Technology, TU/e, as Participant of the Good Light Group. We are very proud that the TU/e’s Intelligent Lighting Institute (ILI) supports our foundation. The Intelligent Lighting Institute is one of the important knowledge centres in the world on all aspects of light. ILI’s mission is to search for revolutionary lighting solutions. To get an impression of the wide range of research in the Intelligent Lighting Institute, you can have a look at: https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-institutes/top-research-groups/intelligent-lighting-institute/research/sound-lighting/ At the campus of the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Board members Jan Denneman and Bruno Smets met with Jos Hermus, the managing director of ILI, to sign the Participants Agreement. We are looking forward to a productive cooperation!

On January 29th, 2020 the board of the Good Light Group and the participants met in person for the first Participant Council meeting. Representatives of Seaborough, Signify and Sparckel were present. Claude Gronfier from Inserm, Roelof Hut from the University of Groningen, and representatives from Toshiba Material were unfortunately absent, all with good reasons. Nevertheless the first meeting was a great success. The board presented an overview of the activities since founding in May 2019 and the strategic plans for the future. Detailed ideas for the year 2020 were explained and discussed. The participants present supported the installation of a first chair of the council, who needs to be confirmed by the participants who were absent, to reach a majority voting. In addition, the idea to create two working groups, one to develop a communication plan and one to create guidelines and functional descriptions of Good Light based on scientific data, were supported and several participants already agreed to take a role. At the end of the meeting, everybody left with a very enthusiastic and positive feeling, convinced of the fact that there is work to be done!