ICLEI Members Bologna (Italy) and Tartu (Estonia), working alongside the city of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), have been investigating the need to integrate lighting into broader urban policies to embrace lighting as a strategic asset for fostering a healthier, more inclusive and resilient urban environment.

Urban lighting design should not be treated as a separate engineering task, but fully integrated with other urban features of the public space. Moreover this holistic approach should integrate community support networks to develop inclusive, vibrant and accessible public spaces. Lighting systems need to allow for the dynamic needs of different residents at different times.

The experiences in the three cities show that urban lighting affects sleep, safety and social life. Especially vulnerable groups such as adults over 65 years old, can become socially isolated by bad urban lighting, compromising their wellbeing and quality of life. To counteract these effects, the cities have followed guidelines on how to use urban light to improve health and wellbeing. The guidelines raise awareness among policy makers about the importance of knowledge-based lighting policies, and help cities rethink their urban planning and design, translating the cities’ insights into concrete actionable recommendations to ensure that lighting becomes a key element of designing people-centred cities and urban environments.

In addition to these guidelines, the work done in these cities has also resulted in seven policy briefs: Social lighting for ageing cities; Integrating health and wellbeing-conscious lighting in urban policies; Making an economic case for investing in outdoor and indoor lighting interventions; social lighting for quality of life in public space; Community engagement for designing innovative urban lighting solutions; Health and wellbeing impact of indoor lighting interventions; Ethics in lighting. These policy briefs provide cities with in-depth insights to specific key areas in innovative and sustainable urban lighting design.

The overarching conclusion of the work done in these three cities as part of the EU-funded ENLIGHTENme project, of which ICLEI Europe is a partner, is that cities should embrace lighting as a strategic asset to foster more inclusive, sustainable and healthier urban environments. Knowledge-sharing and collaboration should help them see lighting as more than just a tool for illumination. It’s a source of health, community and quality of life.