Velux Commercial Responds to Latest Rooflight Association White Paper

VELUX COMMERCIAL UK&I has welcomed the Rooflight Association’s new Daylight White Paper – a comprehensive document that highlights both the science and lived experience of well-daylit spaces.

Here, Rooflight Association board member and VELUX Commercial UK&I Sales and Marketing Director Paul Reid offers his perspective on the report.

“The case for daylight in non-residential buildings has never been clearer. This in-depth White Paper pulls together decades of research showing how rooflights and daylighting go far beyond energy performance. Daylight is essential to supporting alertness, concentration and overall wellbeing – and innovative rooflight solutions are integral to making that happen for every building occupant,” says Paul Reid.

Rooflights: Science, Wellbeing, and Personal Benefits

The latest Rooflight Association White Paper establishes that daylight is much more than a building feature – it is a key contributor to healthier, more productive environments, underpinned by state-of-the-art climate-based daylight modelling (CBDM) and user-centric metrics such as circadian rhythm support and staff retention.

Extensive evidence shows that natural daylight helps maintain circadian rhythms, enhances alertness and focus, and leads to improved staff retention and reduced absenteeism in workplaces. Moreover, daylighting is linked with higher academic performance and increased building asset value, proving that responsible design is an investment with tangible returns.

On a biological level, the report highlights how daylight – especially blue-rich light (around 480 nm) – is central to regulating the human circadian system, boosting mood, and suppressing melatonin during daytime hours. Such benefits make well-daylit environments essential for schools, offices, and healthcare spaces, where the impact on wellbeing is measurable.

Rooflights and the Power of Design

The geometry of rooflights is especially powerful. Compared to vertical windows, which only access half the “sky vault,” a horizontal rooflight captures the full 180°, more reliably providing uniform light to deep-plan commercial and industrial buildings.

Modern rooflights, often built with diffusing materials, minimise glare and visual discomfort, helping avoid the pitfalls of occupant-controlled blinds and excess artificial lighting.

VELUX Commercial’s emphasis on a personal, collaborative approach is aligned with this science. “We listen, we model and we collaborate with clients because every project and every occupant is different. Our philosophy is: we make it personal. Where others focus on technical aspects alone, VELUX prioritises individual project needs, from glare control to human-centric lighting,” says Paul.

By placing holistic, purposeful daylight design front and centre, VELUX Commercial UK&I creates spaces that support both personal wellbeing and organisational goals.

Standards Leading the Way: EN 17037 and WELL Building

The White Paper documents a shift away from outdated, static “daylight factor” metrics to more sophisticated methodologies such as climate-based daylight modelling (CBDM), recommended by European Standard EN 17037 and the WELL Building Standard. These standards focus on the annual occurrence of recommended lux levels (e.g., 300, 500, 750 lx) for significant proportions of occupied space and time, making guidelines both more scientific and more relevant to occupant experience.

The White Paper notes, for example, that to achieve the Minimum EN 17037 recommendation for a rooflit space, 300 lux must be reached for 95% of the floor area for at least 2,190 daylight hours annually. Case studies in the White Paper show that even with just 12% of the roof area dedicated to rooflights, buildings routinely exceed these benchmarks – with climate-based simulations indicating as much as 3,353 hours per year at 300 lx across 90% of the area in optimal scenarios.

VELUX Commercial UK&I embraces these standards but goes beyond compliance, tailoring solutions to the specific application, client profile, and building function. “We don’t simply make rooflights, we ensure that every space is fit for its end users, whether that means supporting shift workers’ body clocks or improving focus for students and staff,” adds Paul.

Energy Savings Backed by Evidence

Energy efficiency remains a compelling argument for daylight design. According to White Paper modelling, effective use of rooflights can significantly reduce electrical lighting demand. Even with conservative assumptions, buildings can see thousands of daylight hours at recommended levels – unlocking energy savings well beyond those assumed in simplistic energy codes, provided that electric lighting systems are responsive to available daylight.

Collaboration and Industry Leadership

Achieving the full potential of daylighting requires partnership across the supply chain. As Paul emphasises, “The rooflight industry is at its best when it works collaboratively – sharing knowledge and putting people’s needs at the centre. VELUX is proud to stand alongside the Rooflight Association and other manufacturers in setting a new benchmark for daylighting excellence.”

The 2025 White Paper supports this, highlighting that daylight “potential” is maximised when design and specification are planned together, guided by real-time simulation, in situ measurements, and a focus on end-user outcomes. VELUX’s “we make it personal” campaign underpins this strategy – tailoring daylight solutions beyond standard compliance to positively impact every building user.

>> Read more about VELUX in the news