Development of an Indicator System for Local Governments to Plan and Evaluate Sustainable Outdoor Lighting

• Main Author: Annika K. Jägerbrand
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-02-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: exterior; planning; municipal; streetlight; ecological; environmental
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1506

Outdoor lighting offers many benefits to its users and is often considered a necessity for an active lifestyle when living in modern society. Sustainable outdoor lighting should fulfil the functional needs of the users, be cost- and energy-efficient, and result in minimal environmental impact. So far, a limited number of studies have been able to present clear strategies on how to plan and use outdoor lighting to ensure that it contributes towards sustainable development. Therefore, this study aimed to answer the following questions: (1) How many of the previously established sustainability indicators are already used by municipalities in their lighting planning? (2) Which types of indicators are not used by municipalities? Another aim of the study was to further develop the framework of sustainability indicators by adding new indicators that were identified from lighting plans of Swedish municipalities and the existing literature. In this study, lighting master plans from 16 randomly chosen Swedish municipalities with varying population sizes were analyzed. The results show that few sustainable indicators are used by the municipalities’ lighting plans, especially in the social dimension. The existing framework of sustainability indicators was developed by adding new indicators. Furthermore, 28 new indicators were identified, eight originated from new studies and the literature, and 20 originated from the municipalities’ lighting master plans. This study shows that there is a need for guidelines and recommendations for working with outdoor lighting from a sustainability perspective, especially in the social dimension of sustainability, where most of the new indicators were identified.