Channeling da Boss: An unvarnished look at today’s lighting standards, guidelines, regulations, consortiums, and so much more.
Please join the IES Detroit for a virtual meeting with special guest speaker James R. Benya as he gives us his unvarnished opinion on some of the hot lighting topics of the day. Inspired by the great Steven S. Squillace, Jim will touch on LEED, WELL, DLC, POE, DC, LC, CLD, PE, IES, IALD, and time permitting, possibly some of your other favorite acronyms.
About the speaker:
James R. Benya, PE, FIES, FIALD is a founding principal at Benya Burnett Consultancy, in Davis California. He is a frequent speaker at IES and IALD meetings and conferences, columnist at Designing Lighting Magazine, and a member of the 2013 Class of the Michigan Lighting Hall of Fame.
The Detroit Lighting Community has played a leadership role in IES and illuminating engineering for many years. In particular, one uniquely knowledgeable, skilled and visionary engineer foresaw the future and began a quest to develop new methods and skills in the applied practice of illuminating engineering that to this day are used daily: Steven S. Squillace, PE, FIES. Jim Benya started his career working for Steve at the Smith Group with fellow Michigan Lighting Hall of Fame members David DiLaura, Jan Lennox Gruel (Moyer), Naomi Johnson Miller and Gary Steffy for 11 years prior to moving to San Francisco. He is among the most highly recognized members of the IES community, as a Fellow and twice member of the Board of Fellows of IES, as a 4-time winner of the IES International Illumination Award of Excellence, as a recipient of the 1999 IES President’s Award for his work on ASHRAE/IES 90.1, as a periodic contributor to LD&A, as the winner of the Sol Cohn Lifetime Achievement Award from the IES Northern California Section, and as the 2020 recipient of the IES Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the Society.
Through all of this, Jim has continued Steve Squillace’ s curiosity about light and his constructive commentary and periodic criticism of our industry and its trends. In LD&A in 2018, Jim wrote “Our Work is Done Here”, citing the profound improvements in lighting efficiency 40 years and asking why lighting codes needed to continue to change. He has been a guest speaker on the NAILD podcast “Get a Grip on Lighting” and particularly popular for questioning trends in the industry and marketplace. At the 1992 IES Annual Conference, Jim was introduced by Dan Blitzer as an “iconoclast”. Don’t expect to hear political correctness in this program either.
Topics will include:
- LEED and WELL – two “standards” -sort of
- DLC – its past, present and future
- Dark Skies and responsible outdoor lighting
- Energy Efficiency: We are there, what is next?
- Lighting overregulation -Micromanaging milliwatts? Why the triannual changes?
- POE and DC – Good idea or force fit?
- Lighting design certification and licensing – LC? CLD? PE? IES? IALD? Nothing at all?
- Human Centric lighting and a decade of misinformation
- The race to capitalize on circadian systems
- PS I hate the phrase “human centric”
- Blue Light – it causes sky glow
- UV disinfection systems – appliances or luminaires
- Indoor farming – gonna make it higher
- Snake oil is not a cure
- The international lighting community and us
- Ethics
- Anything else you want to ask (not guaranteeing I will know what you are talking about, but I’ve been around the block a couple times and we might just have some fun!)