Our Group and Our Goals

The Illinois Coalition for Responsible Outdoor Lighting is a group of Illinois citizens who share a commitment to work toward the reduction of wasteful, harmful lighting practices within our state. We come to this shared interest from various callings, including environmental conservation, energy conservation, and astronomy; we realize that the single subject of poor lighting practices reaches deeply into each of these diverse arenas.

One of our core principles is that responsible lighting practices must include consideration of each of the major areas of concern which commonly plague current outdoor lighting: Energy inefficiency and waste; unnecessary light trespass which impacts the natural environment, human health, and/or human experience of the night sky and night itself; and safety and esthetics. We believe that "solving" one of these problem areas without addressing the others is a mistake.

Other civic and professional organizations share our concerns about humanity's need to responsibly care for our planet. Rather than working off on our own, sometimes duplicating the efforts of various other groups, our intent is to serve as a catalyst to get like-minded organizations working together to achieve improvements in this subject which effects us all.

If your organization deals with civic, environmental, or other concerns in which lighting issues, or energy or fiscal waste play a role, we would be happy to come and speak to your group about the detriments of bad lighting, and discuss how partnering with our coalition can be of benefit to all, and help make our fine state the model of responsible stewardship of the night.

Our Projects

Raising public awareness of lighting issues
Serving as a resource for information on responsible lighting practices for home owners, business owners, and municipalities
Working for the development and implementation of responsible lighting standards
Promoting the adoption of statewide policies on lighting, and the creation of a statewide program to provide lighting engineering assistance to municipalities and businesses which are endeavoring to implement responsible lighting
Promoting and coordinating lighting-related action by like-minded civic and conservation organizations

If you are interested in more information about our organization, or would like to receive our newsletter, please send us an e-mail at:



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