Standards, codes, legislation, new technology, case studies and site tours were all on the agenda at the 2010 IES Annual Conference, entitled “Quality Lighting in a Greener World”.

The Opening Session, “The Great Debate: The Banning of the Incandescent Bulb”, pitted Kaj den Das of Philips Lighting against Phil Gabriel of Gabriel Mackinnon. Gabriel framed the opposition to the incandescent ban in both political and quality-of-light terms. den Das framed the pro-ban of the incandescent around economic arguments. He also stated that lighting currently accounts for 19% of all electricity used. Both agreed that consumer education will be vital.

Two other General Sessions continued with the green theme of the conference: one about global climate trends and the urgent need to adopt codes and standards to reduce the use of fossil-fuel-based energy in buildings and, the other, a presentation about standards that provide guidance on creating sustainable built environments. A fourth Session discussed the changes to the forthcoming 10th edition of the IES Lighting Handbook, due in early 2011.

A “robust discussion” ensued during the CEO Roundtable over the speed of the domestic market transition to LEDs. Designers in the audience raised reservations about adoption of new products employing new technologies (such as LEDs), preferring to specify products that were tested and reliable.

Interspersed throughout the conference were five Seminars and eight Paper Sessions, offering attendees the opportunity to learn in formal group or one-on-one settings about some of the latest research findings in lighting. Offsite tours of lighting installations gave attendees an opportunity to see exemplary work of lighting applications in metropolitan Toronto. A Lighting Design Workshop was also held.

Conference sponsors included Acuity Brands Lighting, BetaLED, Cooper Lighting, Philips Lighting, Philips Day-Brite, Philips Lumec, GE Lighting Solutions, Lutron and Osram Sylvania.

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