Facility Executive column (June 2026) by Kingspan Light + Air's Neall Digert arguing that daylighting is the one strategy that advances decarbonization, 40-80% lighting-energy cuts and occupant well-being at once, if planned early with modeling.
Overview
Published by Facility Executive on June 30, 2026, this four-minute-read column by Dr. Neall Digert of Kingspan Light + Air addresses facility leaders who are being asked to cut energy, meet sustainability commitments and improve occupant health at the same time, usually on a flat budget. Its argument is that these are not three separate programs, and that daylighting is one of the few building strategies that moves all three at once, provided it is designed for performance rather than simply for more glass.
Key Findings
- Electric lighting accounts for roughly 15% to 20% of the world's electricity use, which makes lighting demand one of the largest single levers for a building owner pursuing net-zero goals.
- Well-designed daylighting can cut lighting energy demand by 40% to 80%, depending on building type, orientation and whether daylight-responsive controls are integrated.
- Rating systems are pulling in the same direction: LEED v5 weights both climate action and quality of life, and WELL and Fitwel both credit access to daylight.
- Research links daylight and views to better cognitive performance, higher satisfaction and less eyestrain, and daylight exposure to better sleep, alertness and reduced fatigue; in healthcare, daylight is associated with shorter hospital stays.
- Poorly planned daylight brings glare, solar heat gain and discomfort, so the strategy has to be balanced against climate, orientation, glazing performance and how each space is used.
- Daylight modeling tools now let teams predict performance before construction using metrics such as spatial daylight autonomy, annual sunlight exposure and useful daylight illuminance, which is why the author urges bringing daylighting into the earliest design stage.
Why It Matters for Daylighting
The 40% to 80% range is the number to remember for single-story industrial and retail buildings, which are the best case: a large roof over a large floor means toplighting can reach nearly every square foot, and pairing prismatic skylights with photosensor dimming is how the top of that range is achieved. Energy codes have already caught up with this logic; ASHRAE 90.1 and the IECC require daylight zones under skylights in most large enclosed spaces and require the electric lighting there to respond automatically. The column's emphasis on early planning also applies to retrofits, where curb spacing, roof structure, sprinkler layout and fall-protection requirements all need to be resolved before the first skylight is cut in.
Read the health claims with the author's affiliation in mind. They are consistent with the peer-reviewed literature summarized elsewhere in this library, but this is an industry column, not a study.
About the Source
Facility Executive (formerly Today's Facility Manager) is a long-running U.S. trade publication for facility management professionals. Neall Digert, Ph.D., MIES, is vice president of innovation and market development for Kingspan Light + Air North America, a manufacturer of skylights and daylighting systems, and has more than 30 years of daylighting research and consulting experience. The library copy is a five-page printout of the web article. Read the original at facilityexecutive.com.
This page is an original summary written by Logistics Lighting. The source article is the copyrighted work of its publisher and is referenced here for research and educational purposes under the fair-use provisions of Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act. A reference copy of the original is provided for convenience; please contact the publisher for any use beyond fair use.
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