Articles
Lightning Strikes
All too often, business managers believe that lighting that consumes less energy, and therefore costs less to operate, is better lighting. This attitude actually costs businesses billions of dollars a year, according to John Bachner, communications director for the National Lighting Bureau, a nonprofit educational organization based in Maryland.
Workers who are given good lighting perform faster and make fewer mistakes, Bachner says, noting that a technique used to cut lighting energy consumption in half at one business also caused a 28 percent decline in productivity.
“The bottom line,” Bachner says, “is to design a lighting system that first and foremost optimizes human performance, and only then minimizes energy consumption.”
Reprinted with permission from the February 2000 issue of Continental Magazine, published by Pohly & Partners, Boston, MA.