The vision statement below was crafted by a group of government and industry experts in the lighting field. The developers of the vision statement explored market and technology trends and their implications for lighting. The vision statement reflects new opportunities for lighting based on these trends. This section of the roadmap provides information on each major trend.
Lighting Industry Marketplace Vision
The vision of the future marketplace for advanced lighting services is one of growth. There will be a growing demand for advanced lighting systems by businesses, building owners and managers, and end users.
In businesses, advanced lighting will support the relentless drive to increase productivity, create value-added services, and reduce costs. Tomorrow’s lighting will respond to the significant changes now under way in the nature of work and, in turn, in commercial building design and management. For example, lighting of the future will enable more effective use of space for multitasking, so businesses can adapt workplaces currently designed for individualized, manual and paper-based operations into an environment that promotes teamwork, shared re- sources, and electronic processes.
Also in business, high-quality lighting systems increasingly will be valued for their ability to improve employee productivity, employee retention, and quality control, particularly as work becomes evermore dependent on information access and interconnectivity. Businesses and individuals also will gain greater understanding of how advanced lighting solutions can improve health, safety, and security in the workplace, as well as yield significant bottom-line saving lighting by reducing energy consumption.
In the commercial sector, advances in lighting will help answer the needs of building owners and managers for the highest possible return on capital investments. Efficient, intelligent lighting systems—especially those networked in a “whole buildings” context with other building systems—will enable managers to exercise greater levels of control over building functions, minimizing operations, maintenance, and energy costs. More important, advanced lighting will provide the high-performance, aesthetically pleasing environment that increasingly will be demanded by tenants.
In the consumer market, advanced lighting will help fulfill our appetites for comfort, convenience, and instant information and connectivity. Whether at work or at play, as consumers we will demand an increased level of personalized control over the function and aesthetics of our lighting. Sensors and controls in future lighting systems will pro- vide us with new levels of information about our environment, and will allow us to shape that environment to enhance our creativity and productivity.
Future Light Technology Vision
The lighting vision presented earlier anticipates a flood of scientific and technology developments that will make lighting an increasingly more effective, efficient, and dynamically responsive contributor to our built environments. Advanced lighting systems will exploit the capabilities of more powerful and cost-effective sensors and controls, wireless power transmission and connectivity, high-efficiency light sources, breakthroughs in biotechnology and chemistry, innovative high-performance materials, sophisticated systems integrations and modeling capabilities, and many other new and emerging technologies.
Lighting design will increasingly be done in an integrated “whole buildings” context that optimizes human-made and natural systems (such as daylight) to provide efficient, high-quality lighting, heating, cooling, ventilation, and information exchange. Greater emphasis on ongoing education for lighting professionals, as well as outreach to consumers, will be needed to maximize the value and opportunities afforded by fast-changing technologies.©
