Climate Change, Environment & Sustainability

Highlighting Consensus-Driven Development of an Important New Standard

Balancing Competing Interests in Lighting Quality and Energy Use

February 2025

If you’ve bought a light bulb recently, you’ve likely encountered an overwhelming number of choices. This stems from two major trends: the growing demand for energy-efficient products and advancements in light emitting diodes (LEDs), which create more light per watt and offer a wider range of color-related qualities.

As LEDs started replacing incandescent bulbs in the 2000s, it became clear that a new evaluation standard was required to balance the competing goals of lighting quality and energy efficiency. The Illuminating Engineering Society‘s Color Committee—comprising experts in human perception, lighting research, interior design, energy engineering, and manufacturing—took on the challenge. By synthesizing research findings and existing methodologies, they developed TM-30, a standardized system for specifying and rating the color rendition of light sources.

In this webinar, Dr. Michael Royer (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) and Dr. Kevin Houser (Oregon State University) discussed the committee’s challenges, the collaborative approaches that led to both the creation and widespread adoption of TM-30, and key lessons for other HIBAR projects—including the benefits of aligning a project’s leadership structure with its goals.

Key Takeaway Messages

Politics and opposition to change can be significant barriers to progress for a HIBAR project.

Contributions to HIBAR projects are often not valued as highly as they should be by university promotion and tenure processes.

A small group of highly vested and active collaborators often drives progress.

Early career team members can develop HIBAR leadership skills with the help of mentorship from experienced colleagues.

If a group has established trust and a sense of urgency, it can more efficiently make decisions and reach consensus.

Persistent effort is necessary to turn HIBAR research results into lasting impact.

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

Watch the full webinar recording

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Webinar Speakers

Michael Royer

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Dr. Michael Royer is a chief engineer at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), where he leads the core lighting research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. He conducts experiments to help refine metrics and specification guidance, with the ultimate goals of advancing lighting quality to improve building occupants’ satisfaction and wellbeing while increasing the use of energy efficient lighting technologies. Michael is a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) and serves on the IES Vision Science committee and the IES Color committee.

Kevin Houser

Oregon State University

Dr. Kevin Houser is a Professor in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University, and he holds a joint appointment as Chief Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His work focuses on human perceptual and biological responses to light and applications of light within the built environment. Kevin is co-founder of Lyralux, Inc., a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) and former editor-in-chief of LEUKOS, the IES journal.

Permanent Carbon Removal

Creating sustainable solutions for permanent carbon removal at scale

November 2022

There is an urgent global effort to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in order to mitigate climate change. While many industries are striving to transition away from the fossil fuels-based energy sources that have generated this atmospheric carbon dioxide, it is widely understood that a full transition to renewable energy sources will take several decades, and in the meantime there will be an ongoing reliance on fossil fuels. As a result, parallel efforts to develop effective strategies for reducing atmospheric carbon emissions, by capturing and storing the carbon dioxide, are an essential part of the global climate change mitigation effort. The next decade is critical for scaling up and commercializing carbon removal technologies.

UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management (ICM), led by Professor Gaurav Sant, is tackling this challenge of creating and developing sustainable solutions for carbon removal, and demonstrating that they are effective at a scale that is globally relevant in a range of carbon-intensive industries, including power plants and cement and concrete manufacturers. The technologies they have developed ensure carbon removal that is both durable and permanent, locking away the carbon for thousands of years or more.

The work at ICM is an excellent example of HIBAR research: projects pursue new knowledge that is needed to develop solutions to an urgent and global problem, in deep partnership with experts in industry, government, and non-profit organizations. Webinar speakers Gaurav Sant and Thomas Traynor will describe how ICM approaches this HIBAR work, including the challenges of demonstrating technology scalability in a university laboratory environment and bridging skills gaps by integrating experienced industry professionals within the university-based team. With this approach, ICM has demonstrated that it can successfully navigate a field that is moving quickly and is likely to have near-term global impact.

Key Takeaway Messages

As a form of cross-sectoral partnership, universities can hire knowledgeable, experienced people from outside universities to co-lead HIBAR projects.

The university environment offers greater intellectual and funding flexibility for HIBAR projects than the industrial environment.

Balance in team composition is needed for HIBAR projects to be agile and pivot quickly.

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

Watch the full webinar recording

Watch key excerpts from the webinar

Webinar Speakers

Gaurav Sant

Pritzker Professor of Sustainability
Director, UCLA Institute for Carbon Management

Thomas Traynor

Technical Lead, Technology Translation Team
UCLA Institute for Carbon Management

Breakthrough Strategies to Accelerate Team Research

Research leaders share key insights from HIBAR projects that are translatable to other research opportunities

April 2021

In this webinar, we heard from research leaders about complex and impactful projects, and initiated a dialogue to investigate if their key insights are translatable to other research opportunities. This joint webinar was hosted by the University of California Davis Office of Research.

Key Takeaway Messages

Be prepared to work outside your comfort zone.

Committed support by the university administration is key.

Universities are capable of responding very quickly to urgent societal needs.

Societal stakeholders must be involved in the research from the beginning.

It is essential for the research team to have a shared vision of the project goals.

We can apply these lessons to tackle other global challenges.

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

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Watch key excerpts from the webinar

Webinar Speakers

Dr. Richard Michelmore

University of California Davis

Dr. Ana Lucia Cardova-Kreylos

University of California Davis

Dr. Randy W. Larsen

University of South Florida

Dr. Sylvia Wilson Thomas

University of South Florida

Building a Durable HIBAR Infrastructure

Enabling a platform for HIBAR research projects designed for collaborative research, teaching and advocacy

October 2020

Dr. Fonna Forman, Director of the Center on Global Justice at the University of California San Diego, shared her experience in building a durable infrastructure for HIBAR projects, specifically focusing on developing the long-term partnerships that are essential for success.

Dr. Forman’s experience stems from work during the past decade to create the UCSD Community Stations, a network of field hubs located in disadvantaged neighborhoods on both sides of the San Diego-Tijuana border, designed for collaborative research, teaching and advocacy among university researchers, school districts, and community-based non-profit partners. She described how the community members and researchers have developed long-term relationships through which trust has built as a result of being a constant positive presence in each other’s lives. This established trust network has enabled a platform for HIBAR research projects focusing on key issues such as climate vulnerability, educational disparities, and health disparities. In addition to direct, tangible solutions to specific challenges, these projects have the potential to lead to policy changes that enact lasting positive change in the communities by building capacity for political and social advocacy.

The Center on Global Justice (CGJ) at UC San Diego was launched in 2012 to advance interdisciplinary research on poverty and global development, with an emphasis on collective action at community scale. The CGJ is home to initiatives focused on global ethics and cooperation (the conventional terrain of global justice), but the majority of the center’s initiatives localize the global, focusing on real-word intervention at local scale, in partnership with non-profits, government agencies, and civic stakeholders—top-down and bottom-up.

Key Takeaway Messages

Long-term partnerships are developed from relationship networks based on trust and mutual respect.

The conventional academic research model is ineffective for addressing many societal problems.

Research teams need a support infrastructure to manage the complexity associated with addressing societal problems.

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

Watch the full webinar recording

Watch key excerpts from the webinar

Webinar Speaker

Dr. Fonna Forman

UC San Deigo

Using Genomics for Sustainable Aquaculture

Understanding genetics and metabolism to adapt fish and fish feed to sustainably meet global food demands

November 2019

Presenter Dr. Ronald Hardy from the University of Idaho described a highly diverse and interdisciplinary HIBAR project to develop the basic genetic understanding that is needed to carry out widespread aquaculture of fish in a sustainable manner, as one approach for addressing societal issues related to food security.

This project was underway for some time within the Aquaculture Research Institute (ARI) at the University of Idaho, and the research team successfully navigated many of the challenges faced in HIBAR projects. In the webinar presentation, Dr. Hardy described these challenges and the approaches the research team took to overcome them.

Key Takeaway Messages

It is important to involve people at different stages of their research careers in HIBAR projects.

Substantial and ongoing communication is needed to ensure that partners are truly engaged in the basic research aspects of the project.

Building a strong HIBAR research foundation can enable new HIBAR projects to flourish.

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

Watch the full webinar recording

Watch key excerpts from the webinar

Webinar Speaker

Dr. Ronald Hardy

University of Idaho

Forensic Detection of Illegally Logged Timber

Developing and deploying new knowledge and tools to slow the trade in illegal logging

September 2019

Dr. Philip Evans from the University of British Columbia described an innovative and timely HIBAR project for the forensic detection of illegally logged timber. The project seeks to develop and deploy the new knowledge and tools from a variety of disciplines to slow the trade in illegal logging and help conserve the world’s rapidly diminishing forest ecosystems.

Illegal logging – the harvesting, processing and trade of timber in violation of national laws – destroys forest ecosystems, deprives poor nations of income and funds other unlawful activities. Dr. Evans shared his experiences related to this HIBAR project, particularly: (1) the origins of the project and why it is a good example of a HIBAR project; (2) challenges associated with a project involving partners with expertise in many diverse fields, including forestry, material and data sciences, analytical chemistry, forensic science, and law enforcement; and (3) changes within the academic system that would help the project.

Key Takeaway Messages

Communication between experts in different disciplines is critical.

Sufficient time is needed to establish solid relationships.

It is easier for later-career faculty to emphasize impact over publications.

Securing funding for HIBAR projects is challenging.

HIBAR projects often lead to new projects that are unexpected.

Read the key takeaway messages from all of our webinars here.

Watch the full webinar recording

Watch key excerpts from the webinar

Webinar Speaker

Dr. Philip Evans

University of British Columbia