David Shiller

It’s widely known that the office real estate market has been severely hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic, and in fact, continues to get worse even after the pandemic is over. This is largely due to the persistence of work-from-home for a significant portion of the workforce. The national office vacancy rate rose to a record-breaking 19.6% in [...]

  Optique Lighting has announced the launch of their Armadio illuminated closet rod collection. These custom architectural Nano Linear closet rod luminaires are engineered to be one of the industry’s strongest closet rods and are offered in custom lengths to a designer’s specification, in 1/8-inch increments up to 8 feet. The closet rod diameter is 1.34 inches, [...]

  Container shipping rates for important global trade routes have spiked this week due to the combination of Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen, and the recent air strikes against Houthi bases, by the US and UK. There are now shipping industry fears of a prolonged disruption to Red Sea trade routes, one of the busiest [...]

  Most people in the lighting industry know that high heat can destroy both LED’s and drivers, especially drivers containing electrolytic capacitors. However, there are classes of both LED emitters and luminaires that are designed to withstand high operating temperatures, up to 212oF. Example applications include lighting for steel mills, blast furnaces, pulp & paper [...]

 Three companies in Finland have collaborated to demonstrate the successful commercialization of bio-based packaging materials for light fixtures that are recyclable, plastic-free, and biodegradable. The three companies involved are: Secto Design – a company specializing in sustainable wooden design lamps, moved its Petite product line’s products from traditional fossil-based packaging into new packaging made of [...]

  The Green Proving Ground (GPG) program leverages GSA’s real estate portfolio to evaluate innovative building technologies. The program aims to drive down operational costs in federal buildings and help lead market transformation through the deployment of new technologies. Program goals include sustainability and interagency collaboration. Since 2015, GSA has coordinated the GPG program with [...]

The WiFi Alliance has officially finalized WiFi 7, aka 802.11be. WiFi 7 enabled laptops will have data rates between 4.0 to 5.8 Gigabits per second (Gbps). Wi-Fi 7 operates on the same 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands, so it’s backward compatible with previous Wi-Fi standards. But while older devices can still connect to Wi-Fi 7 [...]

  2023 was another turbulent year in the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) market. There was a surprising wave of bankruptcies in Q1, Q2, and Q3. Major players like Infarm, AppHarvest, Aerofarms, and Kalera all closed operations and filed for bankruptcy. The high-profile closures then contributed to funding drying up for CEA ventures, hindering new projects. [...]

On January 9th, 2024, DarkSky International officially launched the DarkSky Approved Lodging Program. DarkSky Approved Lodging is an overnight visitor accommodation with exceptional or distinguished quality starry nights and a nighttime environment preserved through on-site DarkSky Approved lighting. They include camps, seasonal campgrounds, hotels and resorts, retreat centers, properties promoting ecotourism, and astrotourism lodges that [...]