"Solving complex problems by providing multiple solutions at the same time," that's Jon Penndorf's definition of truly sustainable design. Jon is Perkins&Will's Sustainability Leader and believes that great design outcomes are more than the sum of their parts — especially when designing sustainably. Listen in as he discusses the influential role that lighting designers play within the larger project team, setting meaningful project goals, guiding clients via education, and going way beyond LEED to achieve the next level in sustainable buildings and spaces.

Sustainability in lighting manufacturing is one of the community’s hottest topics. Following in the footsteps of the carpet, furniture, and building materials industries, owners and specifiers alike are asking for lighting products to be created with more than just energy efficiency in mind when it comes to sustainability. Join Sam as he talks through the fine points of Finelite’s sustainability journey with Jane White, president of the company, as she discusses the baby steps and the bold leadership needed for manufacturers to succeed.

The emergence of virtual reality (VR) technology for architecture and design has been making headlines in the past few years — in the future, they've said, VR will become an integral part not just of a client presentation but also of the design process. Well, the future is now. Ernesto Pacheco, Director of Visualization, and Coffield King, Senior Lighting Designer at CannonDesign, joined Sam on the LytePOD for an in-depth discussion on how VR applications can make a lighting design go from good to great and sell an idea better than any other medium can.

You can't miss the buzz in the lighting industry around material transparency, and in part that's thanks to people like Melissa Mattes, senior lighting designer and sustainability specialist at Sladen Feinstein Integrated Lighting. Melissa shares the "why" that fuels her passion for advancing sustainable lighting design practices and discusses how she took her sustainable values to help create a sustained voice in the design community — calling for improvement and change.

Update: There is now a LIVE light search engine that you can filter search for products with Declare Labels >> https://lightaz.com/led-luminaire-search

Other resources: https://www.mindfulmaterials.com/lighting-advocacy-letter | www.linkedin.com/in/mmattes

Moving the needle on climate change isn't something the lighting industry can do alone — but we can start by looking at what the AEC sector has put in place and build on that progress. DPR Construction's global sustainability leader, Ryan Poole, talks us through some of the real and perceived obstacles surrounding sustainability in the design and delivery of the built environment and offers his thoughts on the power of collaboration to help us rise to the challenge.

There's something seriously wrong with the way we specify and procure lighting today — ask any lighting designer, and you'll hear a horror story or two about packaging, substitutions, and pricing games that clearly show the system is broken. Enter Paul Boken, VP of Mulvey & Banani Lighting, and one of the contributors to Sourcery, a new content-sharing platform for the lighting design community. Paul talks to us about the need for a better way to manage the procurement piece of the lighting design process, so we can get back to having fun on the design side!

In part two of Sam's conversation with the Boston Lighting crew: Dan Weissman, Senior Associate and Director at Lam Partners, Kate St. Laurent, Associate Vice President at CannonDesign, and Sara Schonour, VP of Education and Engagement here at Lytei, the group dives into a new set of topics: what designers really want to see in new products, what they need as manufacturer and rep support, and new frontiers they see for lighting design services.

When it comes to lighting design today, Sam sat down with Dan Weissman, Senior Associate and Director at Lam Partners, Kate St. Laurent, Associate Vice President at CannonDesign, and Sara Shonour, VP of Education and Engagement here at Lytei, to explore everything from current design visualization software to designing and documenting and the tools they wish they had but don’t have at their design disposal.

Want to know what's at the cutting edge of lighting tech? VR, AR, data leveraging, and new frontiers of visualization and production aren't just "somewhere on the horizon" anymore — they're already transforming everyday life. Listen to Chris Slaughter, Senior Lighting Engineer at Visual Interest, talk us through some exciting ways technology is changing the way we work in the lighting industry. 

From the Archives: Touchless buildings, automated climate control, and lights that make you feel good are all great ideas, but how do we build a space that can successfully implement and integrate all of that technology? Join Jay Wratten, Practice Leader of Innovation Advisory Services at WSP, as he takes us on a digital journey through the built environment and walks us through the system infrastructure that has to be in place.

This episode was originally released on July 27, 2020.