By Chelsea Jones, Digital Marketing Manager at LED Lighting Supply
External influences will continue shaping the commercial and industrial LED lighting market in 2025, from an AI-powered landscape to local market compliance, timber scarcity for poles, and tariff surges. Environmental forces, lighting advancements, and supply chain factors require facility managers, building owners, utility contractors, and others to make well-informed and impactful decisions to drive their businesses forward. Let’s dive into the top 2025 growth areas and players driving industry transformation.
The AI-Powered Shift on Productivity
Artificial intelligence is here to stay and continues evolving daily operations. Facility managers are adopting smart lighting systems in offices, warehouses, and factories to customize the environment based on their preferences while minimizing energy consumption. While traditional lighting controls have been around for some time, AI-powered lighting systems are designed to understand environmental status and occupant behavior. With these learnings, the system tailors lighting levels and color temperatures to create a safe, comfortable, and well-lit working space.
With a real-time understanding of operational behaviors, smart AI-controlled lighting reacts to produce these preferences during scheduled work periods in offices, maximizing productivity. The automated direction of the light ensures optimal light coverage while balancing high-quality lighting levels. As a result, employee eye strain is minimized, safety hazards are mitigated, and production output improves.
This evolution is beneficial for those warehouses and factories that have begun feasibility testing or gone all in on AI-driven enhancements. AI-controlled automation adjusts lighting focus in packing and inventory locations to reduce packaging mistakes and amplify customer satisfaction.
Lighting Plans from an Energy Efficiency Standpoint
Traditionally, pre-planned lighting layouts have focused on ensuring proper light fixture recommendations with accurate fixture counts. This ensures high-quality light coverage and occupant safety in any space type, from sports fields to parking lots and factories. These recommendations improve energy efficiency naturally when LED lights are built in but have typically not been a core consideration for why to run a lighting plan.
Custom lighting plan needs are now evolving to the point where just knowing the lighting and fixture count is not enough. Installers and end users want to ensure efficiency in their layout planning. Can we get away with 72 lights instead of 84 without impacting worker experience? Will a more efficient light fixture produce the same light coverage? These questions are now at the forefront of many planning discussions.
Property investors have been a prime use case of this approach. The profitability risks posed by traditional lighting systems have encouraged building owners to take action and adopt high-performing lighting alternatives to meet operational excellence while reducing energy costs. In turn, the investment becomes more profitable. Custom-tailored LED lighting plans have provided this solution with energy efficiency and cost savings as the end goal in mind, in addition to the more typical benefits of lighting plans.
Scarcity of Milled Timber and Tariff Surges Will Give Fiberglass Its Time To Shine
The shortage of viable timber for the manufacturing of wood utility poles continues to worsen. This, paired with increasing demand, climate change, and severe weather events, will impact the future state of wood pole purchasing. Existing tree farms simply cannot keep up with the demand for light and utility pole upgrades, varying pole height requirements, and damaged infrastructure replacements.
Wood poles are not out of the question yet as an option. Other material solutions continue to try and push their way into the market. Steel has longevity in the market but due to high production and installation costs has yet to grab a solid foothold though there are many enhanced benefits compared to wood. Fiberglass poles are a comparable choice that has been heavily utilized in countries such as Australia where viable timber supplies are already depleted. Their rot, rust, corrosion, and fire resistance paired with their durability have made fiberglass poles an attractive alternative for commercial, industrial, and sports-related projects. See chart below.
Fiberglass poles are commonly utilized as an alternative to wood poles in coastal and hurricane-prone locations. Known for their superior EPA ratings, high-wind-rated fiberglass poles are engineered to withstand extreme weather conditions and environmental challenges. Fiberglass utility poles are designed to bend, not break, reducing the negative ramifications of structural damage. In turn, replacement costs are reduced and safety is maximized. This alternative mitigates the risks of wood pole shortcomings in these environments.
To that end, tariffs coupled with stringent import regulations are on the rise. The regulations are expected to impact a variety of steel product imports which make up 21% of all steel used in the USA [1]. This according to the Tax Foundation’s latest update, modeling of President Trump’s proposed 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico and the enacted 10 percent tariff on China [2]. The intent of the structural steel market tariff is primarily to help make USA-based manufacturers more competitive in the market. These tariff increases follow the 25 percent tariff increase on steel products in March 2018. Implementation of the 2018 tariffs resulted in the US-made steel benchmark prices increasing by 41% in just a few short months [3]. Despite the recent pause on Canadian and Mexican import tariffs, considering steel pole alternatives is a smart choice. After all, rising import costs generally correlate to rising USA-based supplier prices.
Dark Sky Compliance Emphasis
Local ordinances continue to emphasize dark sky compliances. With a prestigious mission to minimize light pollution at night, the International Dark Sky Places Program (IDSP) saw tremendous growth in 2023. The growth included 20 new places becoming certified, including parks, reserves, and communities. [4]. New York, known for sweeping buildings and extensive light prominence, enacted the ‘Lights-Out’ legislation in 2014. This bill specifies that outdoor light fixtures must be shielded on commercial or industrial buildings and structures [5]. Active adoption trends over the years paired with the new DarkSky Approved Lodging Program launched in January 2024, are expected to result in more strict enforcement and compliance in 2025.
In short, the future-proof LED lighting trends of 2025 are expected to continue prioritizing energy efficiency, sustainability impacts, and smart control advancements while emphasizing employee well-being, safety, and boosting productivity. See image at top. These improvements equate to cost savings which are helpful for both cash-strapped municipalities and profitability-focused commercial, industrial, and sports enterprises.
References:
[1] American Iron and Steel Institute. (2024, January 25). Steel imports down 8.7% in 2023. American Iron and Steel Institute. https://www.steel.org/2024/01/steel-imports-down-8-7-in-2023
[2] York, E. (2025, January 31). Trump tariffs: Tracking the economic impact of the Trump trade war. Tax Foundation. https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-trade-war/
[3] Long, H. (2018, July 29). Stocks week ahead: Steel tariffs and trade tensions. CNN Business.https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/29/investing/stocks-week-ahead-steel-tariffs-trade/index.html
[4] International Dark-Sky Association. (n.d.). International Dark Sky Places program advocacy. DarkSky.https://darksky.org/news/international-dark-sky-places-program-advocacy/
[5] State Capitol Lobbyist. (n.d.). State lawmakers look to reduce light pollution. State Capitol Lobbyist. https://statecapitallobbyist.com/environment/state-lawmakers-look-to-reduce-light-pollution
About The Author:
Chelsea Jones, Digital Marketing Manager at LED Lighting Supply, brings over seven years of experience developing customer-focused strategies. Specializing in content creation and digital campaign development, Chelsea helps streamline buying decisions by providing customers with the necessary resources to make informed decisions. Her insights have been featured in leading industry publications, including The Realty Times, Commercial Construction & Renovation Magazine, and T&D World, where she shares valuable information on the commercial, industrial, and sports lighting sectors. Outside of the office, Chelsea enjoys playing piano, attending yoga sessions, and spending time with her dog, Zeus.
All Images: LED Lighting Supply
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