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CfDS Achievements

Since its formation in 1989, the CfDS has made its influence felt in many ways:

• Road Lighting The lighting industry freely admits CfDS’ contribution to the sea-change in lighting design over the last 25 years. A lighting professional has called the CfDS the biggest single factor in lighting design during the last decades. The Institution of Lighting Professionals uses CfDS material in its courses and distributes the CfDS’ booklet Towards Understanding Skyglow by Dr Chris Baddiley, CfDS committee. The Highways Agency’s positive responses have guaranteed that modern major road lighting is more sky-friendly, using units that point only downwards.
• Media interest The media, who often consult CfDS on matters involving lighting and the environment, have a continuing interest in the subject of light pollution.
• Dark Sky Reserves, Parks and Communities The CfDS is proud to be associated with the establishment of areas of the UK in which the night sky is now officially protected under the International Dark-Sky Association’s world-wide scheme. The UK now has more International Dark-Sky Places than any other country in the world outside the USA. See International Dark Sky Places.
• Skybeams in the UK These are now subject to council permission under advertising regulations, and cannot be used without this permission - a direct result of CfDS intervention.
• Councils and Light Pollution Councils all over the UK use CfDS wording in their literature and publicly distributed leaflets about lighting. The CfDS has created a climate within which councils (hundreds of them) are ready to switch off lights in the small hours of the morning, saving energy and money.
• Collaboration with other environmental organisationsThe CfDS has worked with bodies such as the Campaign to Protect Rural England to produce the leaflet Starry Starry Night, bringing the subject of rural light-pollution to non-astronomers. CfDS also contributes to the widely publicised CPRE Night Blight campaign and dark sky surveys.
• The handbook Blinded by the Light is available from CfDS.
• Retailers all over the UK have agreed to adopt down-lighting policies outside their stores.
• The report of the Parliamentary Science and Technology Select Committee used evidence by CfDS and many other astronomical bodies to condemn Government inaction on light pollution. The report led directly to the inclusion of light intrusion in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.
• The report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, Artificial Lighting and the Environment, issued in December 2009, echoed many of the concerns and aims of the CfDS.