Tesla Awards™

Staying true to its mission, the NLB created the Tesla Awards to honor lighting projects that provide High-Benefit Lighting®, or lighting that promotes human performance, health and wellness, safety and security, commerce and the reduction in light pollution. Not only do the winning projects showcase the value of lighting, but they also demonstrate the best practices in lighting design and the importance of collaboration.

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The Tesla Awards program is open to new construction or retrofit lighting projects for all types of indoor and outdoor applications. Anyone may enter a project. Lighting design and implementation teams may include lighting designers, manufacturers, agents, distributors, facility managers or engineers, building owners and occupants, and/or researchers. Judging criteria are use of state-of-the-art lighting and controls, application innovation through needs assessment and project team coordination, documentation to validate enhanced “value of lighting” claims, level of difficulty, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability.

The National Lighting Bureau is announcing the Call for Entries for the 4th annual Tesla Awards. This program recognizes excellence in lighting projects that, through the creative use of lighting systems and controls, illustrate the value of lighting including but not limited to: improved visual performance, promotion of health and wellness, environmental impact including reduced light pollution/preservation of nighttime lighting quality, enhanced safety and security, and increased overall occupant satisfaction.
The main intent of the Tesla Awards is to promote best practices for a wide variety of indoor and outdoor lighting applications. The program aims to do more than highlight beautiful architecture by recognizing projects that provide a narrative and “how to” guide for others with similar application challenges.

Judging criteria includes innovation, Application effectiveness – adherence to high quality lighting principles; includes effectiveness of the user interface, Energy effectiveness – includes controls strategy, Universality – how readily the design applies to other applications, and Sustainability – includes ease of maintenance, use of recycled materials in product/packaging or materials that are recyclable, and other environmental measures).
Special credit points can be awarded at the discretion of the judges for extra project challenge and project impact – e.g., budget, timing, location challenges/limitations, and social benefit (community impact, pro bono projects, historic preservation, etc.)

Anyone may enter a project for the Tesla Awards, and there are no fees for entry. Projects should have been completed with the 2020, 2021 and 2022 calendar years (extended one year because of Covid restrictions). Submissions should be entered via the designated online submittal process and completed no later than April 4, 2023. Winners will be announced during Lightfair 2023 in New York City.