Earth Night is an annual event dedicated to environmental protection and nature conservation. Under the motto ‘Lights out – for a whole night’, citizens, businesses and institutions are called upon to reduce or, ideally, switch off artificial lighting for the entire night of 19 September 2025 from 10 p.m. onwards. Of course, this only applies to light sources that are not essential for safety, such as shop window and advertising lighting, door, house, property and façade lighting, as well as natural area and garden lighting. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of the need to use artificial light more responsibly.
This is because the increasingly intensive use of artificial light is making the nights on our planet steadily brighter. This so-called light pollution kills hundreds of billions of insects (pollinators) every year, irritates birds and many other living creatures (including plants), makes sleep less restful, promotes disease and causes the starry sky to disappear. For this reason, the initiative now has almost 100 official supporters, including the Bavarian Society for the Protection of Birds and the Bavarian Nature Conservation Union.
OTH Regensburg is also participating in Earth Night again. In general, motion detectors are used throughout most of the campus to ensure that lights are switched off automatically. Insect-friendly lighting is being considered and installed in the outdoor areas of new buildings and during the repair of old lighting systems, with regard to light intensity and, above all, light colour. Lights are also shielded at the top.
Tips for reducing light pollution yourself:
- Lighting times according to need
- Targeted lighting exactly where it is needed
- No lighting of trees or other plants
- No lighting of birds' nesting sites
- Low lighting intensities wherever possible
- Use of light sources with warm white light (longest possible light wavelengths < 3000 Kelvin)
- Use motion detectors instead of permanent lighting
- Close the curtains at night so that the surroundings are not illuminated
