Acuity Brands, Inc., one of the world's leading providers of lighting and building management solutions, announced today a licensing agreement with Vital Vio, Inc., developer of an innovative, continuous White Light Disinfection™ technology designed to safely and constantly kill germs on indoor surfaces. Acuity Brands will incorporate Vital Vio’s VioSafe™ White Light Disinfection™ technology into certain of its LED luminaires, beginning with health care applications.

(Image: Acuity Brands Lighting)

The Vital Vio license allows Acuity Brands to incorporate the VioSafe White Light Disinfection technology across its product lines. Additional Acuity Brands lighting solutions could encompass food processing and service; research facilities, clean rooms and laboratories; sports facilities and athletics clubs; education settings; transportation hubs; hotels and hospitality; offices; and general indoor public spaces.

Vital Vio uses a proprietary, precisely tuned broadband spectrum of visible light, designed to target molecules that are only in germs and not in humans or animals. Unlike in the use of UV disinfection systems where human exposure is restricted, VioSafe White Light Disinfection technology is suitable for continuous human exposure. Light fixtures incorporating Vital Vio technology multi-task to provide both illumination and disinfection, and act in concert with traditional intermittent cleaning to kill bacteria and other harmful organisms.

“Germs can be a pervasive threat in hospitals, homes, public spaces, and workplaces. Preventing deadly infections and contaminations caused by the spread of bacteria and other harmful organisms is a constant and costly battle,” said Vital Vio President and co-founder Colleen Costello.  “With our VioSafe technology, we have reinvented disinfection; putting light to work in a unique way to safely, effectively, and continuously kill germs on indoor surfaces.  Acuity Brands’ extraordinary reach, reputation, and ingenuity sets the foundation for commercializing this invaluable technology that will make it easier for customers to make the switch to lighting that both disinfects and illuminates in environments where it is needed most.”

“We are excited about adding this important technology to our luminaire and controls platforms,” said Acuity Brands Lighting Senior Vice President, Rick Earlywine. “It is another example of using LED and software technology to extend the limits of how lighting can be used.”