In a world where we are now focusing on sustainability and a greener future, the concept of planned obsolescence is something we should talk about. Examples include software updates slowing the performance of electronics and lower quality components inside products. While no drastic change happens from day to day, products meant to last several years may start to show their faults earlier than we want or specify. The technology boom over the last three decades has heightened the perceived “shelf life” of products as new items and software updates have made us buy the next new thing. Lighting was also heavily influenced by this boom as the transition of incandescent to fluorescent to LED spanned these decades. While it is great that we are trying to replace old infrastructure with newer LED products, we need to make sure we are focusing on the right product for the design and also for the future.

Most products in the lighting industry can be used together in a system, but recently companies have been making proprietary products with certain compatibly and protocols. We see this in other industries like Apple products with their software and Tesla cars with their parts. While it is nice for the company to have the exclusiveness of certain products, this control over the market stops the consumer from having a choice, also taking away the possibility to innovate new ideas by mixing various products for a design. The other issue from this exclusive product or software is companies then make it hard to fix any issues without the involvement of a certified specialist from the company. All of this adds extra costs and extra steps to maintain products that should be lasting several years. It is great to have help when issues arise, but making sure products are functional and good quality before sending should be what we focus on as sustainability impacts how we design more and more.

So why is this important? From the role of a specifier, having products that are incompatible makes it hard to recommend and use on projects when controls or luminaires will not work with one another. Simplicity is key right now as supply for certain components is quite limited. Clients do not want to wait longer than needed, and they want a system that works completely. Providing products that will last and that can work with other items seamlessly is what we need right now and going forward.