Lighting Industry

  The ENERGY STAR program is entering a new chapter: primary federal leadership is moving from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Department of Energy. Although ENERGY STAR eliminated its fixtures and bulbs/lamps programs, it still runs programs for downlights and ceiling fans. For lighting manufacturers, retailers, utilities and specification stakeholders, the immediate [...]

  The national controversy surrounding Flock Safety’s automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras is reshaping the conversation about public-safety technology. It is no longer limited to whether police should deploy roadside cameras. The larger question is how ordinary municipal infrastructure—particularly streetlights—can become part of an always-connected vehicle surveillance network. That issue is directly relevant to [...]

  By Geoffrey Marlow, Founder & President, Marlow Advisory Group Editor’s Note: This article was originally a LinkedIn post by Geoffrey Marlow, reprinted with permission. Special thanks to Geoffrey Marlow.   For years we’ve been told that technology would eventually disintermediate the electrical distributor. Manufacturers would sell direct. Contractors would buy online. Digital marketplaces would [...]

  A new study of 7,704 employees at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center adds a significant data point to the ongoing return-to-office (RTO) debate—one with implications for lighting manufacturers, lighting design firms, agencies, rep firms, distributors and other organizations competing for specialized lighting talent. Researchers compared employee outcomes across fully remote, hybrid [...]

  There are different scales of battery energy storage systems (BESS): Utility Scale Commercial & Industrial Building Scale Residential Scale Utility Scale BESS U.S. utility-scale battery storage is expanding at an enormous pace, averaging 70% annual growth over the past three years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s preliminary generator inventory data. The country [...]

  I recently learned about a new type of software for lighting manufacturers that strattles many of the typically siloed configurators, CRMs, PIMs, spec sheet generators, AI analytics, branded portals for reps and specifiers, and product spec search. Electrify Connect is positioning itself as a unified software platform for lighting manufacturers seeking to modernize the [...]

  July 24th, the American Lighting Association (ALA) published a Tariff Alert summarizing the latest Section 301 Tariffs put in place by the Trump Administration. The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has finalized a new tariff framework under Section 301 targeting 60 trading partners over forced labor enforcement. These new duties take effect immediately and [...]

  The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) latest commentary argues that lighting is entering a second major transition after the global shift to LEDs. The first wave was defined by rapid efficiency gains, falling costs, and long lifetimes that helped LEDs dominate global markets and curb electricity demand, energy bills, and emissions. Now, the IEA says [...]

  The specialty lighting sector is moving from a seasonal add-on to a year-round service category, driven by professional holiday displays, permanent roofline systems, landscape accents, and event lighting for homes and businesses. For years, holiday lighting was viewed as a short-lived seasonal service, driven mainly by homeowners who wanted a festive display for a [...]