There’s a new industry association to talk up the sustainable benefits of Power-Over-Ethernet (PoE) lighting and technology (versus traditional high-voltage electrical infrastructure), to highlight PoE’s key strategic value to organizations, and to advance more interoperability for smart buildings.

The seven founding members of the PoE Consortium are:

• Igor, specializing in enterprise smart building infrastructure, software and online services
• GENISYS PoE, a PoE lighting system manufactured by Innovative Lighting
• Mecho, a leader in the commercial shading industry
• MHT, a PoE-based smart building lighting, technology, and software controls company
• Platformatics, specializing in data collection and storage for complex building systems
• PoE Texas, delivering PoE enabled amenities and building automation
• Sinclair Digital Services, a design and implementation firm with a focus on DC microgrids, battery energy storage systems and associated Software Platforms.

From a group discussion about developing a joint white paper, MHT Lighting Chief Marketing Officer Kim Johnson came up with the idea for the PoE Consortium.

Johnson says, “What began as a small project expanded quickly. Right away, we recognized the untapped strength of bringing together different viewpoints, perspectives and areas of expertise. It’s not hyperbolic to say that PoE is a game-changer. We all agree more decision makers need to know the technology exists, they can integrate it right now and it has a proven history of transformation.”

Tyler Andrews, CEO of PoE Texas, sees value in the new PoE Consortium. “As soon as Kim proposed the idea of a consortium to the group, all of us immediately saw the potential of working together to provide a joint space for resources, interoperability and expertise on PoE. The end users and installers will benefit most from this group coming together to provide the best information possible to anyone interested in PoE.” The PoE Consortium already offers an online hub of resources for education and training. This core of industry expertise “enables anyone looking to install PoE technology to feel confident in their decision to take advantage of the sustainability, savings and advanced amenities PoE technology offers. On the site today are explainer articles, project calculators and case studies. Soon, the site will include training and qualification courses for installers and integrators to ensure the quality of PoE-enabled projects.”