Shepherdstown, WV: The 750,000-member International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) has become the newest sponsor of the National Lighting Bureau. An independent, not-for-profit foundation established in 1976, the Bureau’s mission is to educate commercial, industrial, residential, and other lighting-system owners, managers, and users about the bottom-line benefits of high-quality illumination; what the Bureau refers to as High-Benefit Lighting®.
The IBEW was formed on November 21, 1891 as the National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, at a St. Louis, Missouri convention convened for that purpose. Its name was changed to International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in 1899. Today, IBEW members are employed throughout North America and in Central American and Caribbean nations as well. IBEW members are skilled in all disciplines of electrical construction, serve in many capacities for utilities, and are also vital elements of the computer, telecommunications, and broadcasting industries, among others. The IBEW is well known for its industry-leading apprenticeship and continuing-education programs that provide skills and knowledge IBEW members apply to elevate their contributions to project teams.
IBEW’s representative to the National Lighting Bureau is Edwin D. Hill, Jr., one of the organization’s International Representatives for Business Development. He commented, “The Bureau focuses on lighting, an issue that is one of the IBEW’s major focus areas, especially so because lighting systems are becoming part of the electronic infrastructure that is essential to contemporary buildings. Our interests have always been close. Today, they are closer than ever. Our values are close, too. We both believe that quality pays for itself, from design and specification through installation and commissioning. We look forward to helping the NLB make that point ever more vigorously in the years ahead.”
“We are blessed to have the support of our sponsors,” said NLB Executive Director John Bachner. “While their financial support is essential, the time volunteered by their representatives is even more important. The entire lighting community owes a debt of gratitude to those who sponsor the Bureau and so help the NLB continue its outreach to the public in general and those who own and manage lighting systems in particular. We’re proud to count the IBEW as a sponsor.”
The Bureau’s sponsors include professional societies, trade associations, manufacturers, and agencies of the U.S. government, now including, among others:
- A.L.P. Lighting Components, Inc.;
- ATG Electronics;
- Forest Lighting;
- GE Lighting;
- Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES);
- Imperial Lighting Maintenance Company;
- interNational Association of Lighting Management Companies (NALMCO);
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW);
- International Landscape Lighting Institute (ILLI);
- Jan & Brooke Luminae, LLC;
- Lighting Controls Association (LCA);
- Luceco;
- LumenOptix;
- Lutron Electronics Company, Inc.;
- National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA);