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Unlocking Smart Efficiency: Your Guide to AI-Ready Buildings

William Attardi on November 18, 2025

Discover how AI can optimize energy, comfort, and operations and how you can lead smarter, more sustainable buildings. Navigate the transition to AI-ready buildings.  This whitepaper offers insights into energy optimization, alarm management, sustainability reporting, and predictive maintenance.  Gain actionable strategies, real-world case studies, and a clear roadmap to harness AI for smarter, more efficient, and future-proof building operations.  Unlocking Smart Efficiency: Your Guide to AI-Ready Buildings | Buildings

Final Version of DesignLights Consortium’s New Technical Requirements for LED Lighting Released

William Attardi on November 4, 2025

The SSL V6.0 and LUNA V2.0 Technical Requirements are now combined in a single set of technical requirements and scheduled to take effect in January.

Key updates to SSL V6.0 include:

  • A major revision to the DLC Premium product classification for luminaires with higher efficacy thresholds and more rigorous requirements for controllability, expanding the classification to further enable incentives for advanced controls and integrated building systems.
  • Provisions to drive wider adoption of controls through compatibility-based product selection from the SSL and Networked Lighting Controls (NLC) QPLs.
  • Expanded SSL QPL eligibility to support sustainability, lighting innovation and flexible installation practices.
  • Clear criteria and improved documentation for manufacturers and specifiers.

Overall, the new technical requirements for LED lighting maintain an average increased efficacy threshold across all DLC qualified product types of 14 percent (with some product efficacy increases as high as 19 percent). At the same time, recognizing that efficacy must accompany quality to support long-term energy savings and user satisfaction, SSL V6.0 includes efficacy allowances for products that meet higher quality of light thresholds in terms of features such color rendition and glare control. Full details of SSL V6.0 and LUNA V2.0 are available the DLC’s website 

MIT Sloan Executive Education Programs

William Attardi on November 1, 2025

Our programs offer hands-on learning experiences and cutting-edge research to empower you to tackle today’s challenges and seize tomorrow’s opportunities.

  • Courses for Individuals – MIT Sloan Executive Education courses provide hands-on learning experiences, faculty research, and proven frameworks that have immediate applicability to careers and organizations.
  • Executive Certificates – Pursuing an Executive Certificate enables you to further your business knowledge and skills on a schedule of your own design.
  • Solutions for Organizations – Whether you’re launching a new product, entering a new market, or going global, you need to be absolutely sure your team is ready. That’s why our custom programs are tailored to your organization’s specific challenges and opportunities.

Executive Education Programs | MIT Sloan

Agentic AI Can Transform Manufacturing, Deloitte Report Finds by Cary Gitter

William Attardi on October 16, 2025

Agentic AI refers to autonomous generative AI agents that possess “agency”—the ability to both act and choose actions to take—which enables them to independently complete complex tasks and achieve human-defined objectives with minimal or no supervision. Multiagent systems consist of multiple AI agents completing specific objectives and collaborating to accomplish sophisticated workflows.Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform the manufacturing industry in the coming years,  according to a new report released by Deloitte in September. Powered by large language models, autonomous generative-AI agents with the “agency” to work independently alongside people could be used to support multiple aspects of companies’ operations. In general, due to its ability to act autonomously, agentic AI can be an important new tool to help manage the complexity that manufacturers can face throughout the organization. It may also serve as an important building block for the future of automation in the industry, including robotics achieving increasing degrees of agency, or workers having enhanced access to process and equipment trend information on industrial tablets as agentic AI helps to break down data silos. Agentic AI Can Transform Manufacturing, Deloitte Report Says | Manufacturing News Desk | advancedmanufacturing.org

Webinar: AI and Ecommerce: The Future for Electrical Distributors

William Attardi on October 10, 2025

Discover how AI is transforming electrical distribution—from customer insights to ecommerce efficiency—in this exclusive webinar with industry leaders from DDS and ECI.

October 22, 2025 @ 11:00am ET, Duration: 1 hour.  

In this webinar, Matt Christensen, President & Co-founder of DDS, and Chris Fisher, VP of Global Ecommerce at ECI, will share how both organizations are introducing new AI-powered solutions designed to help distributors:

  • Gain actionable insights into customer behavior and buying patterns.
  • Improve and optimize the product content that fuels online sales.
  • Streamline ecommerce management to free up valuable resources.
  • Strengthen digital marketing, SEO, and customer engagement.

REGISTER @ AI and Ecommerce: The Future for Electrical Distributors | Electrical Wholesaling

Embracing Modern Software Development Practices in the AI Era

William Attardi on October 7, 2025

The whitepaper reveals how organizations can transform their software development practices to meet today’s demanding business requirements while ensuring security and quality. Key findings include:

  • 87% of developers using generative AI reported increased focus on meaningful work
  • Organizations face significant challenges in monitoring security across growing attack surfaces
  • Modern software development requires new skills in infrastructure operations (59%), cloud migration (54%), and cybersecurity (52%)

Download to learn:

  • How to implement the four pillars of modern software development.
  • Strategies for successful adoption of modern software practices.
  • Ways to balance innovation with security and governance.
  • Best practices for integrating AI into development processes.

Harvard Business Review Analytic Services – DevOps Whitepaper

NEMA Launches Career Development Platform to Power the Electroindustry Workforce of the Future

William Attardi on September 19, 2025

 NEMA announced NEMA Academy, a dynamic new online learning platform designed to strengthen technical training and workforce development across the electroindustry.  The future of manufacturing demands a workforce skilled in robotics, AI, digital tools, and industrial automation, and NEMA Academy is designed to meet that need. Built for professionals at every stage of their careers, the platform provides access to more than 1,400 education and certification opportunities in multiple languages. Courses span a range of topics, including NEMA standards, policy issues, supply chain resilience, emergency preparedness, lighting, and more. With new content added regularly, NEMA also is working with Congress to advance comprehensive workforce development legislation to ensure long-term support for the electrical industry’s workforce. The bipartisan Veterans Energy Transition (VET) Actwill help match veterans with a range of technical and operational skills with the manufacturers of critical electrical equipment and components.  NEMA Launches Career Development Platform To Power the Electroindustry Workforce of the Future – NEMA

Wesco Cares Scholarship Program

William Attardi on September 13, 2025

Wesco has partnered with Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) as well as ELECTRI International, an electrical construction foundation established by the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), to establish a new scholarship program for future electrical workers. The Wesco Cares Scholarship Program supports the next generation of tradespeople and fortifies our commitment to the electrical industry. The $200,000 in scholarships will be awarded to qualified and deserving students entering skilled trades in the U.S. electrical industry. As the largest electrical distributor in North America, Wesco understands the critical role of tradespeople in powering our world and moving the electrical industry forward. Similarly, IEC and ELECTRI are tireless advocates of the electrical industry and are both committed to supporting the next generation of contractors. By helping to reduce the financial costs associated with trade school and apprenticeship expenses, the scholarship program will help encourage interest in the trades and contributes to an increase in skilled labor. Wesco Cares | Scholarship Program | Wesco

Welcome to the Lighting Controls Academy

William Attardi on September 6, 2025

In keeping with its alliance with NEMA and the NEMA Academy, the Lighting Controls Association is now the Lighting Controls Academy, a NEMA coalition. The LCA remains the leader in lighting controls education. Under the “Learn” tab, you can click the “Video Courses” button for a roster of free video courses that will be dramatically expanded over the next year. Under the “NEMA Academy” tab, you can access our Education Express courses that are registered for education credit. The new platform includes an enhanced website, comprehensive learning experience, and access to a broad and growing curriculum covering lighting controls in addition to other topics and categories such as lighting. Learn About Controls

Winning the Race AMERICA’S AI ACTION PLAN

William Attardi on August 28, 2025

The United States is in a race to achieve global dominance in artificial intelligence (AI). Whoever has the largest AI ecosystem will set global AI standards and reap broad economic and military benefits. Winning the AI race will usher in a new golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people. AI will enable Americans to discover new materials, synthesize new chemicals, manufacture new drugs, and develop new methods to harness energy—an industrial revolution. It will enable radically new forms of education, media, and communication—an information revolution. And it will enable altogether new intellectual achievements: unraveling ancient scrolls once thought unreadable, making breakthroughs in scientific and mathematical theory, and creating new kinds of digital and physical art—a renaissance. America’s AI Action Plan has three pillars: innovation, infrastructure, and international diplomacy and security. An industrial revolution, an information revolution, and a renaissance—all at once.  America’s AI Action Plan

Remembering the Solemn Purpose of Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States observed on the last Monday in May to honor and mourn U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the armed forces. The holiday traces its roots to the years immediately following the American Civil War (1861–1865), which caused massive casualties—roughly 620,000 soldiers dead, about 2% of the U.S. population at the time. Communities across the North and South began spontaneously decorating the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers, wreaths, and flags, a practice that gave rise to the original name: Decoration Day. On May 5, 1868, Major General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)—a powerful Union veterans’ organization—issued General Order No. 11. This proclaimed May 30, 1868, as a nationwide “Decoration Day” to honor those who died in the Civil War. After World War I, the holiday expanded to honor all American service members who died in any war, not just the Civil War.  In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act to create more three-day weekends for federal employees. This moved Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, effective in 1971, when it was also officially named “Memorial Day.” As one 1868 quote put it: “That Nation which respects and honors its dead, shall ever be respected and honored itself.”