In many schools, lighting eats up 30-40% of utility costs. As energy codes become more restrictive, can lighting satisfy the demands of the modern classroom, with horizontal and vertical workplanes, computers and A/V equipment? To test one approach, the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) engaged [...]

The Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) has released a report on “bright green buildings,” which CABA defines as a “building that leverages intelligent technologies to support environmental sustainability while providing a significant return on investment (ROI).” The report, titled Bright Green Buildings: Convergence of Green and Intelligent Buildings and authored by Frost & Sullivan, features [...]

Multilevel switching and personal dimming are often lumped together because the goal is the same–providing users a manual choice of light levels. The 2003 Advanced Lighting Guidelines, published by the New Buildings Institute, says they both save about 30% in energy. There is evidence that bi-level switching saves much more energy than personal dimming control, [...]

Studies show that commercial buildings produce about half of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change—making these buildings the top emitter of human-caused greenhouse gases, ahead of cars and trucks—while consuming nearly three-fourths of electricity produced at power plants. The Commercial Buildings Initiative (CBI) is a public-private partnership formed to achieve an ambitious goal: By [...]