Better Outdoor Lighting at Home

Many of you have asked: What can we do at home to fight light pollution? Fortunately, the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) recommends only 5 easy steps. While not all of the recommendations may work well dependent on your personal environment, 3 of the recommendations can be taken by all of us without compromising our personal concerns about safety.

1)     Turn off the lights.

This is the easiest step but may be the most difficult. Dependent on our personal environment, for security reasons, many of us may feel the need to keep the lights on all night. However, many of us turn our outdoor lights on simply out of habit or to light our home or landscaping. If security is not a significantly impactful concern, consider turning the outdoor lights off when you do not need the light. At a minimum, turn the lights off at 8, 9 or 10pm or when you otherwise retire for the evening. Your neighbors and wildlife friends will very much appreciate it. You will save $$ and will use less fossil fuels. Our planet needs our help. Flip the switch!

2)     Only light what may need to be lighted.

This is an easy step that we can all take. Many of us have many outdoor lights. If security is an impactful concern, consider how many of the lights are needed. Do we need to keep the landscaping lights on? The ornamental patio lights? The light on the garage or the barn? Less may be more. Turn off what does not need to be on. Again, you will save $$ and will help address climate change.

3)     Shield your lights.

This is the only step that will cost $$ and, therefore, may not be easy for everyone. However, it is a very important step and for those of us who can afford this step, a very productive step. Every outdoor light should be shielded with a fixture that directs light down to the ground, not out onto our neighbors’ homes or up into our stars. The IDA website, www.darksky.org, will help you find hundreds of IDA Dark Sky certified outdoor light fixtures, most of which are now available at your local hardware store. Dark Sky fixtures are no more expensive than non-Dark Sky fixtures. Keep the light from your lighted lights on the ground not in our night sky.

4)     Chose not to use bright white LED lights outdoors. This is another easy step that we can all take.

While we want to use LEDS lights, for outdoor use, research has shown that bright white LED lights are very obtrusive, cause unsafe glare, and harm not just our wildlife friends, but us as well. Use not more than a 2700 Kelvin bulb, otherwise known as “Soft White”. The Soft White bulb removes most of the harmful, obnoxious bright white light. It is a slightly more amber color similar to what most of us used outdoors before LEDS. If we want to be even more dark sky friendly, use a 2400 or 2200 Kelvin bulb which is more similar to the yellowish lights that many of us grew up with. We want our nocturnal pollinators such as moths to be pollinating our plants; not circling and dying around our white porch light.

5)     Chose a less bright light.

Like 2 and 4, this is an easy step that we can all take. When you purchase your Soft White bulb or your more amber bulb, chose a less bright bulb. With LEDS, brightness is measured by lumens. Like a 40 watt bulb versus a 100 watt bulb, a 450 lumen bulb is less intense than an 800 or more lumen bulb. For us at home, chose to use not more than a Soft White at 450 lumens. If you feel the need for more brightness, chose not more than 800 lumens. We should not need sunglasses at night. 😊

We very much appreciate that these 5 steps may not work for all of us. Maybe the best we can do is install less bright Soft White bulbs and turn off some of the lights before we retire. Maybe timers and motion sensors can help us reach our Dark Sky goals. Regardless, every step helps.

Thank you and Go Dark!

by Adam Kreuzer, IDA Chicago Delegate

Act Now:
Support the Federal Bird-Safe Buildings Act to Reduce Collisions!

Lawmakers have reintroduced the Bird-Safe Buildings Act, a bill that would help protect birds from glass collisions — one of the greatest human-caused threats to birds.

Collisions with glass windows, walls, and other structures kill up to a billion birds a year in the U.S. alone. The Bird-Safe Buildings Act would reduce these deaths by directing public buildings to incorporate bird-friendly design and materials.

Please ask your Representative and Senators to co-sponsor the Bird-Safe Buildings Act now!

Eco-Lectures
A free series presented by local experts.

If you're looking to better the planet, the best place to start is at home.

This new series covers various topics with local experts who educate and provide action steps towards making positive eco-improvements. Although the lectures are geared towards adults, teens interested in the topics are welcome to join.

Presentations may be held virtually via Zoom, or in-person. For the in-person sessions, Zoom also will be activated for those wanting to participate virtually.

For more information and details on how to register, click the button below.

Go Green Glen Ellyn

Go Green Glen Ellyn is a non-profit grassroots environmental organization dedicated to helping our village become greener and its citizens live more sustainably.

Think of Go Green Glen Ellyn as a seedling of a say, an oak tree. The goal is to grow and to be an established presence in the neighborhood, but it may take some time to produce our first acorn.