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America’s Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age

William Attardi on August 27, 2025

President Trump has set a bold economic strategy to reindustrialize America, dominate the artificial intelligence (AI) frontier, and reclaim control over the levers of national prosperity. Achieving this vision requires a workforce system capable of propelling American workers into high-wage careers, upholding the dignity of hard work, and delivering the talent businesses need to power the nation’s economic resurgence. This strategy lays out a comprehensive plan to address the workforce needs of American companies, integrate existing workforce development systems to maximize efficiency and effectiveness, provide accountability for workforce training programs, upskill incumbent American workers, and develop alternatives to 4-year college degrees. The goal is to build a durable system that expands our labor force, helps workers advance, supports employers in meeting their needs, and positions the country to lead in today’s economy and to transform our national workforce investments to meet the talent needs of employers, empower more Americans to access high-wage careers, and reindustrialize the United States America’s Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age

Decoding California’s Title 24, Part 6

William Attardi on August 26, 2025

Commercial building energy codes regulate the design of nonresidential buildings to minimize energy consumption. While the majority of U.S. states adopt model codes and standards, the State of California developed its own code: Title 24, Part 6 of the state’s Building Standards Code. The latest version was released in 2025 and will take effect January 1, 2026. Title 24, Part 6 covers residential, nonresidential, high-rise residential, and hotel/motel buildings. Title 24, Part 6 contains robust, detailed lighting and control requirements. It requires a broad range of controls to ensure general lighting is turned Off or reduced when not needed.  .  For lighting, a number of changes have been made, mostly adjustments and clarifications. Decoding California’s Title 24, Part 6

NEMRA Lighting and IES Partner to Launch Lighting Educational Curriculum

William Attardi on August 21, 2025

NEMRA Lighting and IES say this new virtual learning pathway bridges the lighting knowledge gap. To meet the growing demand for comprehensive lighting education and skills development, the platform builds on lighting and controls expertise while preparing participants for broader industry certifications.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • The curriculum features four progressive levels, from basic lighting fundamentals to advanced system design and integration.
  • Courses one and two are free for NEMRA Lighting members, with higher levels requiring additional memberships and offering CEUs and industry recognition.
  • Partnership with IES ensures high-quality, accredited content that supports professional growth and industry credibility.
  • Participants gain  certificates, CEUs and LinkedIn verifications, enhancing their professional profiles.

For more information, visit NEMRA Lighting Division

NEMRA Lighting and IES Partner to Launch Lighting Educational Curriculum | Electrical Wholesaling

Powering the Future: Insights on the Growing Electrification Market

William Attardi on August 14, 2025

As electricity demand continues to grow, the electrical distribution industry is uniquely positioned to help lead the transformation of the energy landscape with the services, materials, and solutions needed to support its customers and drive progress. To help members navigate this shift, NAED’s Education & Research Foundation, in partnership with Ducker Carlisle, presents the research study: Electrification Drivers, Disruptors, and Scaling Your Business. This study delivers valuable insight into:

  • What’s driving electrification—and what may disrupt it
  • The most promising project areas for distributors
  • How to strategically scale and prepare your team

NAED Electrification Research

Scaling Intelligence: The Exponential Growth of AI’s Power Needs

William Attardi on August 12, 2025

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI)—particularly the training of large-scale “frontier models”—is driving renewed growth in electricity demand. This report analyzes the technical drivers of AI power consumption, projects future demand trajectories for individual training sites and broader AI needs, and highlights energy sector implications. Their analysis found not only that the power demands of AI have increased steadily, but also that they will keep increasing. While training large, advanced AI models currently requires between 100 and 150 megawatts each, they are projected to require more than four gigawatts apiece by 2030.This Product is publicly available at Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI): Scaling Intelligence: The Exponential Growth of AI’s Power Needs

DesignLights Consortium Opens Comment Period for Second Draft of Technical Requirements for LED Lighting: SSL V6.0 & LUNA V2.0

William Attardi on July 28, 2025

The DesignLights Consortium (DLC) today released the second draft of major updates to its Solid-State Lighting (SSL) technical requirements for indoor and outdoor non-residential LED lighting, as well as revisions to LUNA, a dark sky solution. Draft 2 will have a six-week comment period through September 5.  Reviewers can provide feedback via email to comments@designlights.org using the comment form. The final policy will be released in early November. Other changes in Draft 2 reflect feedback the DLC received from stakeholders relative to clarifying various aspects of the technical requirements. These changes are meant to streamline the qualification process for manufacturers while advancing the essential goals of SSL V6.0 and LUNA V2.0. Full details of all proposed revisions are available on the DLC’s website.

Welcome to the NEMRA Lighting Division

William Attardi on July 19, 2025

NEMRA Lighting Division is dedicated to empowering independent lighting representatives and their manufacturing partners. Membership in NEMRA Lighting Division connects you to a powerful network of professionals, programs, and resources powered by three core pillars: Advocacy, Education, and Networking. NEMRA Lighting champions the voice of independent lighting agencies and manufacturers, empowers members by building capabilities, and fosters connections for strong partnerships. Through Advocacy, Education, and Networking, your NEMRA Lighting Division membership equips you with professional development, relationships, and business strategies to give you a competitive advantage. NEMRA Lighting Division

 

Electrical Wholesaling’s 2025 Market Planning Guide

William Attardi on July 8, 2025

 Forecasting can be a tricky business. Your winning bet to succeed boils down to a rather simple, three-step approach:

  1. Work with your management team to gather all the facts you can find about your market of interest
  2. Develop forecasts for which way you think the market is headed
  3. Figure how to maximize the revenue potential

That’s a pretty basic strategy that works most of the time – until the basic facts in your forecast change and need be updated. That’s where we are at right now with the electrical wholesaling industry. It looked like 2025 might be year of moderate growth a point or two better than inflation for the electrical market – until tariffs came on the scene and scrambled some basic assumptions about material costs.  We don’t know when or if tariffs will dramatically impact electrical product pricing, but we do expect the electrical industry to get hit by some degree of tariff-induced prices increases, along with the rest of the U.S. economy. To manage your way through this uncertainty, it helps to have a consistent, tried-and-true planning tool to develop a realistic growth. Electrical Wholesaling’s 2025 Market Planning Guide | Electrical Wholesaling

DOE: Why Tunable? A Look at Schools Using Tunable Lighting

William Attardi on June 27, 2025

LED technology enables dynamic lighting solutions that can adapt to the occupants, tasks, and daylight in a space. Tunable lighting systems can alter the intensity and/or spectral characteristics (color) of the source. As more schools across the U.S. transition from fluorescent to LED technology, many are likely to consider tunable lighting. This case study aims to help decision-makers by looking at past and current tunable lighting projects.

    • Why did schools choose tunable lighting?
    • What features were selected?
    • How was tunable lighting implemented?
    • What was the teacher feedback?

This case study examines tunable lighting installations at eight school districts across the United States. Why Tunable? A Look at Schools Using Tunable Lighting

 

WAC GROUP Joins the Light and Health Research Center’s Lighting Education Partnership

William Attardi on June 12, 2025

The Light and Health Research Center (LHRC) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is pleased to announce that WAC Group, an innovative lighting manufacturer located in Port Washington, New York, has joined the LHRC’s Lighting Education Partnership. The Partnership is a collaboration among businesses, organizations, government agencies and other entities interested in promoting meaningful and effective education in lighting. Beginning in August of this year, the LHRC will be partnering with WAC Group to deliver a series of webinars providing education on how light impacts the health and well-being of people in a range of residential and commercial spaces. Contact: Christopher Pica at Christopher@cpmediarelations.com

The Statue of Liberty was made with copper but due to oxidation, it turned green.

When the “Lady in the Harbor” first arrived in New York in 1886, she didn’t look like the mint-green icon we know today. In fact, for the first twenty years of her life, she stood as a towering, metallic beacon of reddish-gold. Designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and engineered by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the statue was a gift from France to America. To build her, Bartholdi chose copper for three practical reasons:

  • Malleability:It could be hammered into elaborate, thin sheets.
  • Weight:Copper is lighter than stone or bronze, making it easier to ship 350 individual pieces across the Atlantic.
  • Durability:It was strong enough to survive a 27-day ocean voyage and the harsh winds of the harbor.

When she was unveiled on October 28, 1886, her skin—made of 300 copper sheets roughly the thickness of two pennies—shone with a bright, metallic brown luster. The transformation from “penny-colored” to “patina-green” wasn’t planned. Bartholdi actually expected the statue to age into a deeper, darker red. However, the unique environment of New York Harbor—a mix of salt air, moisture, and industrial pollution—triggered a process called oxidation.

The Timeline of Change:

  1. 1886–1900:The bright copper dulled into a dark, muddy brown.
  2. 1903:The first hints of a light green crust, or “patina,” began to appear.
  3. 1906:The color change was so controversial that Congress nearly stepped in. They appropriated $62,000 to paint the statue back to its original color, but the public protested, calling the idea “sacrilege.”
  4. 1910–1920:The statue was a patchy mix of brown and green until 1920, when the oxidation was complete, leaving her entirely teal.

While we now view the green color as iconic, it actually serves a vital structural purpose. The layer of verdigris (the green patina) acts as a protective shield. It seals the copper underneath, preventing the metal from further corrosion and weathering.  By the time the color fully changed, a new generation of immigrants had arrived in America seeing a green statue.