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Without light, design doesn’t exist and cannot be seen or experienced. Increasingly, light goes beyond pure function, performing an aesthetic role in assuming center stage. Much of this enhanced role is a by-product of almost limitless possibilities in its placement or flexibility, changeability and even practicality of using light sources in places and ways that were previously inconceivable.

The federal government has extended the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for solar energy investments through 2019. It provides businesses that install solar panels a tax credit equal to 30% of the total solar installation price. The credit will ramp down to 26% in 2020, 22% in 2021 and to 10% in 2022 for commercial solar installations.

The number of U.S. businesses with solar energy installations grew to a new high in 2015. Enterprises ranging from family-run companies to some of the country’s biggest corporations are producing their own energy, cutting operating expenses and achieving environmental sustainability.

A recent report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) provides data and insights into the diverse mix of corporate offices, office buildings, retail, manufacturing, data centers, distribution and logistics centers, and convention centers that have gone solar.

Starbucks is giving customers a front-row seat on the famed Las Vegas Strip.

The coffee giant has opened a 3,200-sq.-ft. location in Grand Bazaar Shops at Bally’s Casino complex. The store is unusual in that, instead of the typical tables with chairs, it offers theatrical stadium seating (for 30 to 40 people) in the center of the store and surrounding bench seating.

The theme of constant security vigilance also applies to the EMV chip-based card payment standard. Retailers are not the only ones that have been scrambling to adapt to EMV since the October 2015 mandate.

“The chase is on,” said Brian Engle, executive director of the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center (R-CISC). “The introduction of EMV-compliant chip technology is driving fraudsters online.”

Even when security technology vendors and users are unaware of a vulnerability, cybercriminals may already be well aware and taking advantage.

Apple did not create the mobile payment market when it launched Apple Pay in September 2014.

However, Apple Pay did effectively bring mobile payment to the forefront of retailers’ omnichannel commerce strategies. Consumers are slowly starting to follow, with Deloitte data showing in-store mobile payments have increased from 5% of total in-store payments 2014 to 18% in 2015.

Macy’s is supporting a new omnichannel order fulfillment program called “Pick to the Last Unit” (P2LU) with Tyco’s TrueVUE RFID inventory visibility platform.

A seamless customer experience begins with a complete, real-time view of enterprise product assortment. However, RFID technology is taking this concept of “inventory awareness” to previously unimagined levels.

If you were an Uber user in Austin, Texas, this fall, you might have been surprised to see the option to take a horse and buggy instead of a car appear on your smartphone.

The tongue-in-cheek offer was part of Uber’s effort to inform and mobilize customers in its fight against what the company contended were antiquated regulations being considered by local government.