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Any stakeholders supporting energy-efficient and innovative integrated lighting installations are encouraged to submit commercial projects, indoor or outdoor, that they would like to have considered for recognition. Commercial projects can include, but are not limited to:

  • Office spaces
  • Retail
  • Food service and grocery stores
  • Schools (K-12 and higher educational facilities)
  • Hospitality
  • Healthcare facilities
  • Multifamily buildings
  • Federal, state, and local government facilities
  • Tribal-owned or occupied facilities or spaces
  • Warehouses
  • Agricultural spaces
  • Street lighting, parking lots and outdoor hardscapes

If you have a project that you’re not sure is eligible, please Contact Us and we’d be happy to discuss.

Areas of recognition

Energy Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (EJDEI) in Advanced Lighting

The ILC seeks to recognize projects or installations which successfully incorporate Energy Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (EJDEI)—such as those supportive of, or aligned with, the definitions from the U.S. DOE Office of Economic Impact and Diversity Equity in Energy initiative—into the siting, installation, contracting, or procurement of the energy-efficient and innovative integrated lighting. Partners who incorporate JDEI in their organizational processes, hiring, or company policies may also be eligible for recognition. Projects must be aligned with ILC technology areas of interest.

Examples include:

  • Meaningful participation of DACs in decision making. 
    • Examples: Solicit stakeholder input to inform project design and create meaningful opportunities for routine stakeholder engagement throughout the project lifecycle
  • Ensuring the benefits and burdens of projects are distributed fairly.
    • Examples: Develop a community benefits plan for a new building design, in partnership with community stakeholders, that describes in detail how the project will deliver tangible benefits to communities throughout the project lifecycle.
  • Understanding the historical distribution of benefits and burdens in local project development and the energy system. 
    • Examples: Conduct a baseline analysis of existing environmental burdens within the proposed project area and determine whether the proposed project would create additional burdens for the local community to inform how the project proceeds.
  • Create opportunities to improve environmental and social conditions within communities, including local job creation or improving air quality or quality of life. 
    • Examples: The project or installation supports community resiliency (e.g., can be used to offset burdens expressed in community, like a heat island shelter or resiliency hub, especially during extreme adverse climate events).

New innovations in integrated or advanced lighting

ILC seeks to recognize installations of lighting sensors and controls used in ways that go beyond the norm of general occupancy, daylighting, dimming, and scheduling approaches. We're particularly interested in applications where sensors and controls are used to achieve greater energy savings, streamline operations, improve occupant comfort, and experience, or simplify installation, commissioning, and operation of energy-efficient and innovative integrated lighting systems

Examples include:

  • Electric grid, photovoltaics, and/or energy storage batteries (e.g., for the purpose of demand reduction, flexible load management, grid services, resiliency, etc.)
  • Asset management systems (e.g., using real-time location)
  • Space optimization / utilization (e.g., using occupancy sensor data to determine space usage)
  • People (e.g., employees, clients, etc. via indoor positioning/location services, etc.)
  • Enhanced daylight system (e.g., shade control)
  • Security systems (e.g., using occupancy sensor signal or gunshot detection)
  • Automated fault detection and diagnostics (e.g., to monitor component/device/system performance) to improve operation and maintenance in a building or outdoor lighting system
  • Luminaire-level lighting control implementation
  • Networked lighting control implementation
  • Tunable white lighting implementation
  • Projects that use remote or bulk commissioning, wireless sensors, and controls, power-over-ethernet, and other novel approaches.
  • Other innovative approaches in lighting that do not fit within the above examples

Lighting Solutions for Small Projects or Buildings

ILC seeks to recognize projects and solutions in installations less than 50,000 square feet in size. Advanced lighting controls and integrated lighting systems are not one-size-fits all; tell us how your small project has incorporated an advanced lighting system that works for the space and occupants.

Examples include:

  • Buildings without building automation systems.
  • Projects with a small number of light fixtures to control.
  • No dedicated facility managers.
  • Novel room control applications.

Integrated Controls for Plug Loads and Lighting Systems

ILC seeks to recognize projects that integrate lighting controls with automatic receptacle controls or “smart” outlets to automatically power connected devices on or off. Using the lighting systems occupancy sensors and/or scheduling capabilities to turn off appliance loads when the space is vacant adds to the energy savings of lighting controls and can extend equipment life of the appliances. Plug loads ideal for this control scenario may include computer monitors, standing fans, coffee machines, and other loads that may be left on when spaces are empty.

Integrated Controls for HVAC and Lighting Systems

ILC seeks to recognize innovative approaches to save energy and improve occupant comfort by managing lighting and HVAC loads together. For example, lighting controls can communicate with HVAC systems to indicate when a space is occupied or vacant in order to modify ventilation or temperature set points.

    Integrated Lighting and Horticultural Controls

    ILC seeks to recognize exemplary projects within horticultural applications that integrate lighting with HVAC, water, and other building systems to save energy, improve crop yield and quality, reduce the use of harmful chemicals or pesticides, and/or other non-energy benefits. Special consideration offered for greenhouses that provide food in areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, also known as food deserts.

    GERMICIDAL ULTRAVIOLET (GUV) SYSTEMS FOR ENERGY SAVINGS AND IMPROVED INDOOR AIR QUALITY

    ILC seeks to recognize exemplary projects that have successfully deployed energy efficient germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) systems in buildings to reduce the spread of airborne pathogens (such as SARS-CoV-2) and improve indoor air quality.

    Examples include:

    • Projects that incorporate innovative GUV products or system designs that more efficiently and/or effectively disinfect air
    • Projects that successfully install GUV as a more effective and/or energy efficient alternative to increasing building ventilation, such as increasing ventilation outdoor air fraction or air exchange rate, reducing energy use and/or carbon emissions.
    • Projects that integrate GUV systems with other building systems or devices to optimize energy efficiency, improve health or safety, or other non-energy benefits.

    Innovative Maintenance, Operation, and Financing Service Models

    ILC seeks to recognize projects that use novel ways of maintaining, operating, or financing projects that are aligned with ILC technology areas of interest.

    Examples include:

    • Lighting installations that make use of service models (Lighting as a Service or Energy as a Service) to support ongoing system maintenance, optimization, and upgrades of energy-efficient and innovative integrated lighting systems to improve efficiency and extend the usable life of the system
    • Service and/or financing models that support ongoing system optimization of energy-efficient and innovative integrated lighting systems to realize energy savings and improved lighting performance
    • Alternative financing options that allowed for superior technology to be installed up front

    SUSTAINABILITY IN LIGHTING

    ILC seeks to recognize projects aligned with ILC technology areas of interest that have successfully minimized their environmental footprint and impacts across the project lifecycle. Examples include:

    • Lighting-as-a-service (LaaS) and other similar approaches that extend product lifetime and support maintenance or improved End-of-Life outcomes (such as reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, and proper disposal of e-waste)
    • Projects or installations that support take-back programs or reuse or remanufacturing of integrated system parts or components.
    • Projects that use luminaires, controls systems, or other integrated lighting components that feature modular or replaceable components, allowing for upgrades and modifications while the integrated lighting systems remain in-place.
    • Projects that use specific sustainability goals or criteria, and transparency documentation or labeling to determine the selection of the specified luminaires, controls systems or other integrated lighting components.

      Please contact us with any questions, we are happy to discuss your project’s eligibility.