VET EcoLume: Chile leads training stage of sustainable lighting program

Fundación Cielos de Chile led three intensive days of training for the third stage of VET EcoLume, the European Union-sponsored program that trains future trainers in sustainable lighting. The result: a new awareness about light pollution that is everywhere.

VET EcoLume is a vocational education program funded by the European Union that trains young people in sustainable lighting to reduce light pollution. During February, participating institutions met in Santiago for the third stage of the project: training those who will be the “trainers of trainers” who will replicate this knowledge in their countries.

Over three intensive days, Fundación Cielos de Chile led the technical training. “They brought it down to earth so well that we all now understand this technical language,” said Dur Montoya, VET EcoLume leader in Latin America.

Bringing technical knowledge down to earth

VET EcoLume’s education approach allows participants to acquire specific technical knowledge in brief periods, generating immediate job opportunities and promoting, for example, the inclusion of women in traditionally male-dominated technical careers.

Natalia Fuentes, from the Mujer Latina cooperative, came from the cultural sector curious about innovation in lighting. “I think as a society we are very far from having awareness about light pollution,” she reflects. “And everything related to entertainment, music, mass sports events is precisely where light is used most, not only so the event can be seen, but because it has an impact on people’s attention.”

Likewise, Natalia valued the program’s clarity, stating that “it allowed us to delve deeper into the needs and the problem itself, and also into the impacts and how they are totally measurable. The truth is that not much more information is needed because the parameters have very accurate, quantifiable data. It’s not complex to understand,” she noted.

Chile’s leadership

The country was a pioneer in the region in developing specific regulations to protect the skies, initially driven by its role in world astronomy, to which today is added the recognition of excess artificial light as a pollutant affecting biodiversity and people’s health.

“Each actor in the consortium contributes a capacity. And it has been key that Fundación Cielos de Chile is part of it. Chile will be one of the examples for creating norms and implementing sustainability practices,” adds Dur Montoya, who coordinates the consortium from her experience working in international social business networks.

From Chile, participants include Fundación Cielos de Chile, the Municipality of Peñalolén through Corporación Yunus, and the NGO Activa. The Municipality of Peñalolén is the first in Chile to implement these practices, while in Colombia the Municipality of Envigado is the pioneer.

VET EcoLume stages

VET EcoLume structures its impact in five stages. The first consisted of research and contextualization of participating countries. From that research emerged the main needs. The second stage was the creation of an educational curriculum, designed by experts in collaboration with the entire consortium.

Currently, VET EcoLume has advanced to its third stage, which is to begin implementing the pilot. According to Dur, “this is where knowledge is delivered, feedback is received, corrections are made, and training begins. What we are doing is training those who will be VET Providers, that is, the trainers of trainers in all this knowledge.”

Next will come an awareness and sensitization campaign in participating countries. The final stage is projected for October, where, Montoya noted, “many more actors will be visited and we will show how the pilot progressed and how we will sustain this project.” The meeting will be in Envigado, in the metropolitan area of Medellín.