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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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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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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