SPARK

Discoveries, innovations, and insights that illuminate the future of the built environment

Mission: Possible—Lighting solutions, changing more than just bulbs

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At McKinstry, our mission is to make every building we touch more efficient. “Mission: Possible” is a new monthly series featuring people and projects around the country that demonstrate our mission in action.

From the moment you wake up to the moment your head hits the pillow, there’s a constant in almost everyone’s life—light. Whether it’s natural or artificial, in your home or your office, incandescent or LED, light is always in our lives.

In recent years, much of the conversation around energy efficiency and lighting had centered on switching from fluorescent or incandescent bulbs to LED lighting. Understandably so, considering that LED lighting is more efficient, versatile, and lasts longer.

Efficiency in lighting is about more than just changing bulbs, however. This is exactly where McKinstry’s Lighting Solutions team comes in.

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Revitalizing Kilgore College to extend its impact and legacy

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Students returning to Kilgore College campus in the Fall of 2019. Photo courtesy of Kilgore College.

By Ryan Sheard, McKinstry Account Executive

Kilgore College is a Texas institution known across North America for excellence in academics, athletics and community service. It’s also home to a leading fire academy and the world-famous Rangerettes precision drill team that has entertained international audiences since 1940.

To prepare for its 85th anniversary in 2020, Kilgore College envisioned a comprehensive energy revitalization project to extend its impact and legacy. McKinstry worked hand-in-hand with Kilgore leadership to create learning environments as high performing as the Kilgore students themselves.

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A smart, comprehensive approach to a clean energy future

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Jeff Hughes (left) is McKinstry’s Director of Renewable Energy Services.

The clean energy revolution is here, RIGHT NOW! Right-sized, clean, and resilient power generation is the exciting new norm and the future we are building together. Renewable energy has seen tremendous growth in recent years, and widespread adoption has been enjoyed throughout the country in all major market sectors.

This year in the United States alone, 24 gigawatts (GW) of new electricity generation capacity will come online, 66 percent of which will be provided by solar PV, wind, other renewables, or battery energy storage. Eight GW of capacity will be retired, the majority of which is from fossil fuel sources. While this represents significant progress, renewable energy (including hydropower) accounts for just under 20 percent of the overall U.S. energy mix, underscoring the tremendous challenge in front of us—to achieve a 100-percent, clean energy future.

This data shows we’re chasing a moving target—a growing target that still adds eight GW of fossil fuel capacity every year. For us to achieve the future we desire, we must think holistically and with resolute purpose. By adding solar and renewable energy to our electricity grid, we are all helping bring clean energy to our communities but only addressing part of the problem: we are ignoring our energy use and we are ignoring our behavior toward energy.

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Saving the planet, one light bulb at a time

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Ash Awad, P.E., is McKinstry’s Chief Market Officer.

Every year on Earth Day, your newsfeed is probably dominated by stories about the grand sweeping changes underway (or not) to save our planet. We’ve seen global-scale environmental promises from Kyoto to Paris, paired with a deep-seated skepticism of man-made climate change.

So, where may we find common ground? The answer could be simple: Speak to everyone’s values without preaching to convert.

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Everyday Innovation, Part 3

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Innovation is one of McKinstry’s core values.

Throughout 2016, McKinstry’s Western Washington Region organized an “Everyday Innovation” campaign that set out to share innovations and recognize innovators company-wide. We chose this name for the campaign because even smaller-scale or “everyday” innovations can make a big difference in improving the way we work.

All said, the organizers of the campaign have received more than 60 submissions that highlight an impressive array of creative thinking and have sparked discussions about innovation throughout McKinstry.

While the campaign is ongoing, we’ll be featuring nine of the very best innovation submissions we’ve received thus far in a series of Everyday Innovation posts.

This is the last post in the series. The first can be seen here, and the second is here.

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Tunable LED lighting is illuminating the future

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From the moment you wake up to the moment your head hits the pillow, there’s one constant in your life—light. Whether it’s natural or artificial, in your home or your office, fluorescent or LED, light is always surrounding you.

For being so omnipresent in our lives, it’s remarkable how lighting isn’t always focused on what’s optimal for people. Surprisingly often, the various lights in our lives are too harsh, too dim, building-centric, or one-size-fits-all.

One company—PLANLED, based in Federal Way, Wash.—is betting that people fed up with inadequate illumination will embrace the new concept of human-centric lighting (HCL). PLANLED distributes, markets, and sells a variety of different HCL solutions for indoor, outdoor/sports, and industrial settings.

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