March 16, 2024
5 Things to Know: Week Ending March 16
It's three in a row for Graybar. Plus, Acuity Brands discusses its new leaf.
Here's a roundup of some of the week's happenings curated to help lighting people stay informed.
1. Graybar Achieves Record Results. Again.
Graybar, the St. Louis-based distributor of electrical, communications, and data networking products, announced record net sales of $11.0 billion for 2023, marking the third consecutive year of record revenues.
This 2023 high mark represents a 4.8% increase over the previous year's sales. In 2021 and 2022, the company reported sales of $8.8 billion and $10.5 billion, respectively. Net income for 2023 reached a record $463.4 million, up 2.3% from the previous year. The company, a Fortune 500 and one of North America's largest employee-owned firms, also initiated a strategic transformation program last year to further enhance its operational capabilities.
One noticeable trend is the seemingly continuous reports of distributors achieving record years driven, in part, by the inflationary costs of building materials. The latest Producer Price Index shows that the costs of Electrical Switchgear and Switchboard Apparatus have increased by 42% in the last four years.
2 . FHWA wants to drop Buy America waiver
As lighting companies are jockeying for position to chase federally funded infrastructure projects that would include streetlights on highways and other federal roads, the announcement by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regarding the proposed end to the general waiver of Buy America provisions represents a significant shift in policy that could have implications for U.S. manufacturers of highway lighting products. According to a recent report in Construction Dive:
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The FHWA announced on Thursday a proposal to end its nearly 40-year general waiver of Buy America provisions for manufactured products in federally funded highway projects. This move aims to strengthen domestic manufacturing and supply chains and boost job creation.
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The FHWA is also looking to establish standards for the manufactured products that fall under Buy America provisions and is seeking feedback to define these standards. Contractors have previously expressed concerns about the ambiguity of these requirements.
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This proposed regulation is in line with President Biden's executive order from January 2021, which emphasizes maximizing the use of domestically produced goods. The agency's review of the waiver was conducted in accordance with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's Build America, Buy America Act, significantly broadening the mandate for domestic procurement.
3. IES Publishes Circadian Lighting Recommended Practice
The Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) has released a new Recommended Practice (RP) titled "Supporting the Physiological and Behavioral Effects of Lighting in Interior Daytime Environments." Priced at $120, with a discounted rate of $90 for IES members, the publication serves as a guide for lighting practitioners, designers, architects, educators, utilities, government officials, and the broader public.
This 65-page document, identified as ANSI/IES RP-46-23, aims to provide practical applications of light science in daytime settings like schools and offices. It covers the impact of light on visual, circadian, neuroendocrine, and neurobehavioral responses. The RP, a companion to IES TM-18, is part of the Lighting Applications collection and includes chapters on the introduction and scope of lighting, definitions, physiological responses to light, measurement of light for physiological responses, and lighting strategies to enhance circadian entrainment, alertness, and performance.
4. Acuity Brands eyes growth in horticulture lighting
Acuity Brands' foray into the horticulture lighting sector was marked by the debut of its Verjure Pro series of LED grow lights in 2022, which include nLight® AIR wireless controls.
A recent piece in Urban Ag News spotlighted Acuity Brands' strategy in the horticultural LED lighting arena. Following the acquisition of Current's Arize horticulture lighting products, Jacob Palombo, the director of product for horticulture, discussed several insights with Urban Ag News including:
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“Acuity will integrate its wireless controls technology into the Arize products.”
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"With the Verjure Pro series growers can order the lights with a wireless radio that allows all the lights to automatically talk to one another. This allows growers to group them and zone them to meet their needs and to give them more control in ways they could not before."
5. Ray Grenald, 1928 - 2024
The lighting design community mourns the loss of Ray Grenald, FIALD, a pioneer who helped establish the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) and define the architectural lighting design profession as we know it today. He was 96 years old.
Grenald, alongside other groundbreaking design peers, including Leslie Wheel, Howard Brandston, David Mintz, and Martin Garon, co-founded the IALD in 1969. Grenald's vision was instrumental in recognizing lighting design as a distinct creative field.
Grenald's notable career achievements, primarily in the last century, continue to resonate in the lighting design community. Award-winning designers from New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles continue to mention him as a mentor and source of inspiration for subsequent generations of renowned lighting designers. A recent instance was Chip Israel's brief verbal tribute to Grenald last June at Lumen West 2023.
