Illuminating The Industry Path
In May 2010, members from various portable lighting companies began discussing the need of an industry trade organization. By September of that year, PLATO was officially incorporated as a 501c6 in the State of Delaware. PLATO held it's first official board meeting that December.
Since its inception, PLATO has grown to more than three dozen members representing a wide variety of portable lighting manufacturers, including names like Energizer, Streamlight, Coleman, Coast, Petzl, Black Diamond, Dorcy and SureFire.
In late 2016, PLATO celebrated a major achievement when it developed and released the revised ANSI/PLATO FL 1 2016 Standard, which aimed to improve portable lighting quality and packaging transparency. Three years later, in late 2019, PLATO worked with stakeholders to again update the Standard. The ANSI/PLATO FL 1 2019 Standard now includes area lights and continues to be the technical roadmap for manufactuers who are committed to aligning accurate product claims with actual performane metrics. If you're intrerested in purchasing the ANSI/PLATO FL 1 2019 Standard, please contact PLATO at executivedirector@plato-usa.org.
In late 2022, the PLATO Board of Directors recognized the need to tell the story of sustainability in the portable lighting industry. A working group was formed within PLATO that developed best practices for sustainability for all manufacturers of portable lighting products. You can read more here. Below you can see the industry's sustainability journey.
If you're interested in joining PLATO or want to know more about the organization, the ANSI-PLATO FL-1 2019 Standard or other initatives, please contact PLATO's Executive Director at executivedirector@plato-usa.org.
