How is emergency lighting evolving from passive compliance to a smart, integrated pillar of building resilience?
In the June edition of International Fire and Safety Journal, Fabio Mercurio, Business Line Leader for Emergency Lighting in ABB’s Electrification Smart Buildings Division, explores this transformation and its impact on building safety.
“Our ambition was to respect the historical soul of the building while completely modernizing the guest experience,” says Max Hellqvist, General Manager of the Original Sokos Hotel Royal. “From the beginning, we knew technology and sustainability had to be at the heart of this renovation.”
Drivers and Disruptors
A combination of regulatory, technological, and demographic factors is contributing to the development of smarter, more sustainable, and more resilient solutions in the evolution of the emergency lighting industry. These forces are reshaping system design while raising expectations for performance, integration, and long-term value.
1 Regulation
<p>Stricter safety codes worldwide respond to ageing infrastructure that is increasingly prone to fail, raising demands for reliable, high-performance emergency lighting.The IP Guard Unit adds surveillance and emergency door release, while intercom features let you chat between rooms or units. </p>2 Technology
<p>LED and lithium batteries improve lifespan, reliability, and sustainability, while IoT and automation enable easier maintenance and smarter monitoring.</p>3 Demographics
<p>With rapid urbanization pushing 68% of the population into cities by 2050, there is growing demand for resilient systems that ensure safety and business continuity in high-occupancy spaces.</p>
4 Sustainability
<p>Emergency lighting combines low energy use, longer lifespans, and sustainable materials like recyclable plastics. ABB’s EcoSolutions™ reflect this by integrating energy-efficient components and recyclability to support sustainable building goals.</p>5 Smarter Systems
<p>IoT-enabled fixtures and automated self-testing ease operational challenges, especially amid a global skilled labor shortage. These technologies allow real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance, reducing costs and boosting reliability.</p>6 Integration
<p>Connected systems like ABB’s Nexus® and Naveo® platforms provide centralized control and automated compliance across buildings in Europe and North America. Looking ahead, emergency lighting will become fully cloud-connected, intelligent, and interoperable, with AI potentially enabling dynamic, situation-specific responses.</p>Progress at Pace
Adoption of advanced emergency lighting varies globally, shaped by regional regulations, infrastructure maturity, and differing levels of risk tolerance.
North America leads in market share, driven by a strong construction sector and longstanding safety standards. Europe, meanwhile, is pushing the envelope on regulatory pressure and carbon reduction goals, with its market expected to nearly double by 2030.
In Asia and the Middle East, rapid urbanization and large-scale projects—like Saudi Arabia’s $500B NEOM—are fueling demand for integrated, intelligent systems.
Latin America is advancing more slowly due to limited fire safety regulations but is beginning to align with global standards.
With industry embracing sustainability, digitalization and integration, emergency lighting is stepping into a new role: an active, intelligent safeguard that supports building safety even in the most critical situations.
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