For more than a century, the primary mission of the lighting industry was to illuminate darkness. We developed a complete engineering language around illuminance, luminance, luminous flux, photometric distribution, color temperature, color rendering, glare control, energy efficiency, and visual comfort. These concepts shaped modern lighting design and enabled buildings, cities, roads, workplaces, schools, hospitals, hotels, and homes to be safely and effectively lit.
But today, we must face a more fundamental question:
Light does not only illuminate objects. Light also reaches people.
It enters the eye. It supports vision. It also influences circadian rhythms, alertness, sleep, mood, cognitive performance, wellbeing, and long-term health.
Light is no longer only an environmental condition in a space. It is also a daily biological signal received by the human body.
This is why Good Light Wake-up Call is not just another slogan for “healthy lighting.” It is not a repackaging of familiar words such as “eye protection,” “comfort,” “full spectrum,” or “better sleep.”
Its real meaning is much deeper:
We need to move light from a visible engineering system to a human-centric system that can be designed, measured, verified, operated, and continuously improved.
This shift will redefine the value of the lighting industry.
1. Traditional IES Profiles Explain How a Luminaire Emits Light — But Not Enough About What People Actually Receive
Today, lighting design software relies heavily on IES photometric profiles. These files describe the photometric distribution of a luminaire. They allow designers to calculate illuminance, uniformity, brightness distribution, glare, energy performance, and compliance with visual task requirements.
This remains a critical foundation of modern lighting engineering.
Traditional photometric data answers many important questions:
- Where does the luminaire direct its light?
- What is the beam distribution?
- Is the workplane sufficiently illuminated?
- Is the space visually uniform?
- Does the system meet basic visual and energy requirements?
But once we put the human being back at the center of lighting, this is no longer enough.
The next generation of lighting must also answer:
- How much melanopic EDI does a person actually receive at eye level?
- Does the space provide appropriate light exposure in the morning, afternoon, evening, and night?
- Does the same luminaire create very different biological signals under different spectra, dimming levels, and control scenes?
- Do students, older adults, night-shift workers, hotel guests, patients, and office employees all need the same light?
- Can luminaire data enter spatial models and human models, instead of remaining only as product-level photometric data?
This is the underlying logic of the Good Light Wake-up Call.
The next generation of lighting data should not only describe luminaires. It must describe the relationship between light, space, people, time, and activity.
2. EDI/DER: Moving Healthy Lighting from Marketing Language to Calculable Metrics
In many discussions about healthy lighting, the conversation still stops at color temperature. Cooler light during the day. Warmer light at night.
This may sound reasonable, but it is only a rough approximation.
What truly matters is not color temperature alone. It is the full spectral power distribution, intensity, direction, timing, eye-level exposure, duration, and accumulated dose.
This is why EDI/DER matters.
EDI, or equivalent daylight illuminance, allows us to describe light in relation to specific human photoreceptor responses.
DER, or daylight efficacy ratio, helps us understand how efficiently a light source stimulates a specific photoreceptor channel compared with daylight.
These metrics allow the industry to move beyond lux, CCT, and CRI, and begin to ask deeper questions:
- How effective is this light for vision?
- How strong is its melanopic stimulus?
- Does it provide sufficient circadian-supportive input during the day?
- Could it create unnecessary circadian disruption at night?
- Can two light sources with the same 500 lux produce very different biological signals?
- Can two light sources with the same 3000K produce very different effects because of their spectral composition?
This step is crucial.
Once EDI/DER enters lighting data structures, light is no longer described only as “bright,” “warm,” “cool,” or “high color rendering.” It becomes data that can be read by design software, simulated in real spaces, measured on site, verified after installation, and monitored during long-term operation.
This means:
- LED manufacturers cannot only provide luminous flux and CCT.
- Luminaire manufacturers cannot only provide photometric files and energy data.
- Control systems cannot only dim and tune color temperature.
- Sensors cannot only detect occupancy and illuminance.
- Design software cannot only calculate horizontal illuminance.
- Testing laboratories cannot only measure static product performance.
The entire industry must answer one new question:
What light does a person actually receive in a real space, at a real time, during a real activity?
3. The Real Revolution Is Not One More Metric — It Is the Integration of Spatial Models and Human Models
Adding EDI/DER to a product specification is important, but it is not enough.
Healthy light is not a single-luminaire property. It is a spatial and human outcome.
The same LED package behaves differently in different luminaires.
The same luminaire produces different results when installed at different heights, angles, distances, and room geometries.
The same space creates different eye-level exposures for people who are sitting, standing, lying down, or moving.
The same lighting system has very different meanings in the morning, afternoon, evening, and night.
Therefore, the real core of a future Good Light Profile is not simply adding a few new fields to an IES file.
It is a new design logic: Light source data × Luminaire data × Control data × Sensor data × Spatial data × Human data × Time data × Activity data
This is the true closed loop of human-centric light design.
Future lighting design should not only ask:
- Does this desk receive 500 lux?
It should also ask:
- Does the office provide sufficient melanopic EDI at seated eye level between 9:00 and 11:00 in the morning?
- Does it support alertness and visual comfort in the afternoon?
- Does it reduce circadian disruption in the evening?
- Does it avoid excessive vertical illuminance or unnecessary biological stimulation at night?
- Do older adults, children, night-shift workers, patients, and hotel guests require different strategies?
- Can the system be measured, verified, adjusted, and continuously monitored?
This is the transition from lighting design to light environment design.
4. PBM Should Be Treated Carefully — But Future Photobiological Frameworks Must Be Prepared
Beyond EDI/DER, the Good Light Wake-up Call should also recognize broader photobiological responses to light.
One important but sensitive area is PBM, or photobiomodulation.
PBM involves specific wavelengths, energy levels, exposure durations, and biological responses. In many contexts, it moves close to medical, therapeutic, dermatological, pain-management, rehabilitation, or clinical applications.
Therefore, general lighting should not casually claim PBM effects. Nor should medical-grade photobiomodulation concepts be simplified into the statement that “a certain type of light is healthier.”
However, from a long-term industry perspective, we must prepare a data framework for broader photobiological effects.
In other words, the next generation Good Light Profile can begin with EDI/DER as the most mature and practical language, while gradually creating interfaces for broader photobiological modulation — but only under three principles:
Scientific evidence
Concepts cannot replace evidence. Marketing language cannot replace laboratory, clinical, and field research.
Safety boundaries
Different wavelengths, intensities, exposure durations, and user groups may carry different risks. Not every biological response should be assumed to be beneficial.
Application distinction
General lighting, healthy buildings, medical lighting, phototherapy devices, and rehabilitation systems require different regulatory and validation pathways.
A more rigorous position would be:
Use EDI/DER as the foundation for a verifiable framework for circadian-supportive and health-oriented lighting, while preparing scientific, regulatory, and application interfaces for broader photobiological modulation.
This keeps the vision forward-looking, while avoiding exaggerated claims.
5. A New Validation Cycle for Light Sources, Luminaires, Controls, Sensors, Testing, and Software
Once this logic is accepted, the entire lighting value chain will be redefined.
LED Manufacturers: From Efficacy Competition to Spectral Data Competition
Traditionally, LED manufacturers have competed on lm/W, CCT, CRI, TM-30, lifetime, consistency, and cost.
In the future, LED manufacturers will need to provide richer spectral and alpha-opic data.
- How should different packages, phosphor systems, and multi-channel light engines balance photopic efficacy and melanopic efficacy?
- Can they provide sufficient daytime circadian stimulus while maintaining high visual efficiency?
- Can they reduce unnecessary melanopic load at night?
- Can they support different applications in healthcare, senior living, education, workplace, hospitality, and residential environments?
LEDs will no longer be only “efficacy components.” They will become human-centric spectral engines.
Luminaire Manufacturers: From Selling Hardware to Delivering Verified Scene Performance
Luminaire manufacturers have traditionally provided product specifications, photometric files, and installation instructions.
In the future, they must answer:
- How does the spectrum change under different dimming levels?
- How does eye-level EDI change under different mounting conditions and optical distributions?
- What light finally reaches the human eye after interaction with walls, ceilings, desks, and room surfaces?
- Can the luminaire support verifiable solutions for offices, schools, hotels, senior living, healthcare, and homes?
A luminaire will no longer be just a product. It must become a scene-level node that can be simulated, verified, operated, and optimized.
Control Systems: From Dimming and Color Tuning to Circadian and Scene Operation
The traditional value of control systems lies in switching, dimming, color tuning, scene setting, and energy management.
The future value will go further.
A control system must understand what light is needed at what time.
It must adapt to different users, activities, spaces, and environmental conditions.
It must integrate daylight, sensors, user behavior, and health-related targets into dynamic strategies.
In simple terms, control systems will no longer only control luminaires. They will operate light environments.
Sensors: From Sensing Space to Sensing Light Exposure
Sensors have traditionally supported occupancy detection, illuminance control, energy savings, temperature, humidity, and air-quality monitoring.
In the future, light environment sensors must answer:
- Does the actual spectrum match the design intent?
- Does the eye-level vertical plane meet EDI targets?
- Is the daily exposure curve appropriate?
- Does the system still perform as designed after six months?
- Should the lighting be recalibrated after changes in furniture, interior finishes, daylight conditions, or luminaire depreciation?
Sensors will move from being control accessories to becoming infrastructure for verification and operation.
Testing Instruments: From Measuring Lamps to Measuring Human Light Environments
Traditional testing instruments are widely used in laboratories, factories, and single-point measurements.
Future instruments must support more complete field validation:
- Spectral measurement;
- EDI/DER calculation;
- Flicker evaluation;
- TM-30, CCT, and Duv tracking;
- Time, location, and measurement-point documentation;
- Integration with standards, design software, commissioning reports, and operational platforms.
Testing instruments will no longer be only measurement tools. They will become the trust infrastructure for healthy light delivery.
Whoever enables designers, WELL APs, owners, contractors, manufacturers, and standards bodies to speak the same data language may become a core player in the next generation of lighting infrastructure.
Design Software: From Illuminance Simulation to Human Light Exposure Simulation
Design software may be the most critical part of this transformation.
If data cannot enter software, it cannot enter mainstream design workflows.
If it cannot enter design workflows, it remains a concept rather than a market transformation.
Future lighting design software must be able to process:
- Spectral data;
- Multi-channel dimming data;
- Control schedules;
- Eye-level vertical-plane analysis;
- Different human models;
- Different activity scenarios;
- Daylight and electric light integration;
- Post-occupancy measurement feedback;
- Closed-loop calibration between design values and measured values.
This will move lighting software from calculating illuminance to calculating human light exposure.
This is one of the most important directions for the Good Light Wake-up Call.
6. This Is Not an Industry Burden — It Is a New Value Creation Cycle
Some may ask:
- Is this too complex?
- Will it increase cost?
- Will it make the supply chain more difficult?
In the short term, yes, it will raise the threshold. But in the long term, it creates value.
The biggest challenge facing the lighting industry today is not only technology. It is value compression.
- Light sources are treated as components.
- Luminaires are treated as hardware.
- Controls are treated as functions.
- Design is treated as drawings.
- Testing is treated as cost.
- Healthy lighting is often treated as marketing language.
Once the Good Light Profile is established, value will be redistributed.
- High-quality light sources gain new technical premium.
- Multi-channel luminaires gain new data value.
- Control systems gain new operational revenue.
- Sensors gain new installation logic.
- Testing laboratories gain new service opportunities.
- Designers gain new professional barriers.
- Software companies gain new data gateways.
- Owners gain a new language for healthy building assets.
- Consumers gain verifiable trust in good light.
This is not a single product upgrade.
It is a shift from hardware sales to: Design + Verification + Adjustment + Operation + Long-term Service
This is a new business model.
7. How Large Could This Market Become?
If we look narrowly, healthy lighting may appear to be only a subcategory of the luminaire market.
But from the perspective of the Good Light Profile, it is not a product category. It is a foundational capability.
It can drive the upgrade of the entire value chain:
- LED package and source data;
- Multi-channel modules and spectral engines;
- Human-centric luminaires;
- Smart control systems;
- Light environment sensors;
- Spectral measurement instruments;
- On-site verification services;
- Lighting design software;
- WELL, healthy building, and ESG-related projects;
- Office, education, healthcare, senior living, hospitality, and residential solutions;
- Long-term operation and data services;
- Value creation for real estate, hospitality, education, workplace, and healthcare.
This is not only an internal lighting industry upgrade. It connects with healthy buildings, smart buildings, AIoT, BMS, LMS, ESG, medical and senior-care environments, educational spaces, hospitality experiences, residential upgrades, and urban renewal.
The real market scale is not simply:
- How many more lamps can we sell?
It is:
- How many existing luminaires need to be redefined?
- How many spaces need to be reassessed?
- How many products need to be revalidated?
- How many control systems need new programming?
- How many design software platforms need new calculation engines?
- How many testing instruments need upgrading?
- How many owners need a new acceptance language?
- How many consumers need a trustworthy standard for good light?
If this closed loop is built, the lighting industry can move from a mature, price-driven, highly competitive market into a new cycle driven by science, standards, data, verification, and services.
8. For Consumers, Good Light Should No Longer Depend on Feeling or Advertising
For consumers, the significance of this transformation is very direct.
Today, when people buy lighting products, they often see claims such as:
- How many watts?
- How many lumens?
- What color temperature?
- Is it eye-protective?
- Is it blue-light-free?
- Is it full spectrum?
- Is it smart?
But what truly matters is more practical:
- Does a child find it harder to sleep after doing homework under this light at night?
- Can an older adult get up safely at night without being overexposed to strong light?
- Does the lighting in an infant’s room avoid unnecessary circadian disruption?
- Does an office worker receive enough daytime stimulus to stay alert?
- Does a hotel room genuinely support relaxation and sleep?
- Can a home provide the right light across the day?
Future good light products should not only say, “This feels comfortable.”
They should be verifiable:
- Sufficient during the day;
- Restrained at night;
- Spectrally appropriate;
- Flicker controlled;
- Glare managed;
- Spatially balanced;
- Eye-level exposure considered;
- Stable over long-term operation.
That is the kind of trust consumers truly need.
9. For the Supply Chain, This Is a Restructuring of Patents, Technologies, and Business Models
Once light environments integrate EDI/DER, spectral data, spatial models, human models, and operational feedback, many new technologies and patent opportunities will emerge.
These may include:
- Multi-channel LED spectral recipes;
- High melanopic efficacy white-light solutions;
- Low nighttime melanopic load lighting solutions;
- Wide-gamut white light and color-emotion recipes;
- Human-centric lighting control algorithms;
- Time- and activity-based light exposure management;
- Spatial eye-level EDI simulation;
- Coupled spectral and photometric data formats;
- On-site lighting verification workflows;
- Sensor-based closed-loop calibration;
- Healthy building acceptance tools;
- Dedicated solutions for education, workplace, healthcare, senior living, hospitality, and residential spaces;
- Lighting-as-a-Service;
- Healthy building operation data platforms;
- Integration with BMS, LMS, AI, and IoT systems.
In other words, this transformation is not about selling a few more “healthy lamps.”
It will change:
- Who defines the product;
- Who owns the data;
- Who provides verification;
- Who controls patents;
- Who enters the standards conversation;
- Who can generate recurring service revenue.
This is why the Good Light Wake-up Call must become a collective industry movement, not the isolated effort of one company, one product, or one standards body.
10. What Should Testing Instrument, Equipment, and Design Software Companies Do Next?
If light sources, luminaires, controls, and sensors are the body of Good Light, then testing instruments and design software are its brain and nervous system.
They should focus on at least six priorities.
First, create standardized output for EDI/DER and spectral data.
Not only spectral charts, but structured data that design, verification, and reporting systems can directly use.
Second, support eye-level and vertical-plane measurement.
Healthy light is not only about horizontal workplane illuminance. It must understand the light actually received by the human eye.
Third, support the time dimension.
Good light is not a static condition. It is exposure management across a day, a week, a season, and long-term operation.
Fourth, support spatial points and human models.
Measurement data must return to drawings, models, scenes, and user positions, instead of remaining isolated inside an instrument.
Fifth, close the loop between design values and measured values.
What software simulates must be verifiable on site. What is measured on site must feed back into design and operation.
Sixth, support standards, certification, and delivery documentation.
The real value of measurement is not one-time testing. It is the creation of auditable, traceable, deliverable Good Light Reports.
This is the greatest opportunity for instrument and software companies.
Whoever becomes the gateway to this data loop will not merely sell tools. They will help define the infrastructure of the next lighting industry.
11. Join GLGA: Building the Next Generation of Good Light Standards and Ecosystems
The Good Light Wake-up Call is not a slogan from one company, one product, or one event.
It requires scientists, standards organizations, LED manufacturers, luminaire companies, control providers, sensor companies, testing instrument makers, software developers, lighting designers, architects, WELL APs, building owners, investors, and policymakers to work together.
This is the mission that GLGA — Good Light Group Asia is advancing in Asia.
GLGA aims to build a truly interdisciplinary and cross-industry Good Light community.
We seek to:
Translate science into design language;
Translate standards into product capability;
Translate spectrum, EDI/DER, flicker, spatial models, and human models into verifiable delivery processes;
Move healthy lighting from concept and marketing into design, verification, testing, operation, and industrialization.
Current GLGA initiatives include:
LED EDI/DER Working Group
Promoting the inclusion of alpha-opic, EDI, and DER-related data in LED package, light source, and luminaire data, so that source-level information can enter real design and verification workflows.
Good Light Wake-up Call White Paper and Advocacy Initiative
Connecting GLG, GLGA, scientific advisors, international standards bodies, and industry partners to identify the gap between healthy lighting science and practical application.
Light Environment Design and Verification Framework
Moving from single-luminaire testing toward a full verification methodology based on space, people, time, and activity.
Healthy Building and Scenario Co-creation
Developing verifiable Good Light solutions for education, workplace, healthcare, senior living, hospitality, residential, and public building applications.
International Exchange and Asian Implementation
Connecting international scientists, designers, standards organizations, and Asian supply chains to bring global research into Asian manufacturing, applications, and real-world scenarios.
12. We Invite the Following Partners to Join GLGA
LED package and light source companies
To co-develop next-generation spectral data, EDI/DER data, and healthy light source evaluation frameworks.
Luminaire and lighting brands
To co-create Good Light products and scenario solutions that can be designed, verified, and delivered.
Control system and sensor companies
To move healthy lighting from static products toward dynamic operation and long-term monitoring.
Testing instrument companies and laboratories
To build measurement, verification, commissioning, and third-party assessment methods for healthy light.
Design software and digital tool companies
To bring EDI/DER, spectral data, human models, and time-based strategies into design workflows.
Lighting designers, architects, interior designers, WELL APs, and consultants
To move Good Light from specifications into real spaces.
Real estate, hospitality, healthcare, education, senior living, and workplace owners
To turn healthy lighting into spatial value, brand value, and long-term operational value.
Universities, research institutes, and standards experts
To help build evidence-based methods that the industry can understand, adopt, and verify.
13. Joining GLGA Is More Than Joining an Association
Joining GLGA is not only about obtaining a membership identity.
It means taking part in the rebuilding of the lighting industry’s foundation:
- From color temperature to spectrum;
- From lux to EDI/DER;
- From single luminaires to spaces;
- From products to systems;
- From claims to verification;
- From lighting engineering to healthy light environments.
GLGA members will have opportunities to participate in:
- Industry working groups;
- International scientific and standards exchanges;
- White papers and research projects;
- Scenario-based demonstration projects;
- Product and solution co-creation;
- GLGA / GLG international events;
- Asian market development for healthy lighting;
- Deep collaboration with scientists, designers, standards bodies, brands, and building owners.
This is not a position for observers.
It is an invitation to the core discussion table of the next generation of lighting.
14. The Real Call of the Good Light Wake-up Call
We are not rejecting traditional lighting.
On the contrary, because traditional lighting has built such a strong engineering foundation, we can now move to the next stage.
But we must recognize:
- Brightness alone is not enough.
- Color temperature alone is not enough.
- Color rendering alone is not enough.
- Smart control alone is not enough.
- Healthy lighting slogans are certainly not enough.
The core of next-generation lighting is not who has the most attractive slogan.
It is who can truly deliver Good Light.
- Designed.
- Simulated.
- Measured.
- Verified.
- Adjusted.
- Operated.
- Tracked.
This is the meaning of the Good Light Wake-up Call.
It is not merely a reminder to pay attention to healthy lighting.
It is a message to the whole industry:
The value of light is shifting from illuminating spaces to supporting human rhythms, wellbeing, and healthier living.
When EDI/DER enters light sources, luminaires, controls, sensors, testing instruments, and design software;
when spatial models and human models become basic languages of lighting design;
when every healthy lighting claim must be verified;
when every design file, every IES profile, every control logic, and every measurement tool begins to answer the question, “What light does the human being actually receive?” — the lighting industry will no longer be only an industry that manufactures lamps.
It will become a foundational industry for healthy buildings, intelligent spaces, circadian-supportive environments, and human-centric technology.
This transformation has only just begun. But the direction is already clear.
Good Light cannot remain a claim.
Good Light must be verified.
Good Light is not a claim.
Good Light must be designed, measured, verified, and delivered.
Contact GLGA — Good Light Group Asia
We welcome companies and professionals committed to healthy lighting, Good Light standards, light environment verification, and the next generation of lighting industry transformation to join GLGA — Good Light Group Asia.
Contacts:
Daniel Cheng
Email: cydan@outlook.com
Lawrence Lin
Email: lawrence.lin@lightingrecipe.com
Tel / WeChat: +86-18125339818
GLGA Official Website: https://goodlightgroupasia.org
The Good Light Wake-up Call is not one person’s voice.
It is the beginning of a new industry consensus.
We sincerely invite more scientists, companies, designers, standards organizations, and building owners to join GLGA — to move Good Light from vision to standards, from standards to products, and from products into everyone’s daily life.
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