Schwyz Lighttoolbox

Schwyz municipalities work together to develop measures for sustainable lighting management

Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland

2023

Client

Office for the Environment and Energy of the Canton of Schwyz

Beneficiaries

8 municipalities in the canton of Nidwalden: Gersau, Illgau, Küssnacht, Einsiedeln, Feusisberg, Ingebohl, Muotathal, Schübelbach.

Inefficient and unsustainable lighting practices can create an unnecessary burden on the budgets of municipalities and disturb people, animals and plants in their natural rhythm of day and night. Although there is a legal basis and corresponding implementation guidelines for municipalities, they often lack the human resources and time to address the issue in depth.

With the support of the canton of Schwyz, eight municipalities were made aware of the problems of light pollution in two face-to-face workshops. Appropriate measures for sustainable lighting management were developed. The workshops were based on the “Light Toolbox” which helps municipalities to systematically design and implement a needs-based lighting strategy. Further support to municipalities in the implementation of this strategy and its measures is currently under consideration.

In cooperation with the canton of Schwyz, seecon offered the municipalities two participatory awareness-raising workshops based on the “Light Toolbox”. Specifically, we carried out the following activities:

Co-create and design