By Raimondo Salandra, Business Line Leader, Home Solutions, ABB Smart Buildings
In most renovations, homeowners spend hours choosing kitchens, flooring and painting colors, yet the switches and sockets they touch every day are often treated as an afterthought. That is increasingly becoming a missed opportunity.
Three major trends are reshaping expectations in residential renovation: sustainability, electrification, and digitalization. Homeowners increasingly want products that reduce environmental impact, support energy efficiency, and integrate seamlessly into connected living environments. Against this backdrop, wiring accessories are no longer simply functional components – they are becoming an important part of how homes are designed, experienced and future-proof.
Why wiring accessories matter more than we think
Switches and sockets are among the most frequently replaced elements in any home renovation. They are also among the least examined from a materials perspective, which is exactly why they represent an opportunity.
For homeowners, sustainability is increasingly measured not only by energy consumption but also by the materials used inside the home. Products that incorporate recycled or bio-circular materials allow renovation projects to reduce environmental impact without compromising aesthetics or functionality.
Two of our ranges – SAGA™ and Busch-art linear® – show what is possible when material choices are taken seriously from the start, each approaching the challenge in a different way.
Our SAGA™ range 
Busch-art linear®
Our SAGA™ range is made with bio-circular materials, meaning more than 75 percent of products use content derived from biological waste streams – including used cooking oil – certified under ISCC PLUS. It is produced in our Mission to Zero™ factory in Porvoo, Finland, which operates at net-zero emissions.
Our Busch-art linear® range takes a different approach to the same challenge. It replaces crude-oil-based polycarbonate with recycled material, achieving an 82 percent reduction in CO₂ compared to standard production. The source material includes products like old car headlights and CDs.
The renovation window
Renovation is one of the few moments when homeowners are open to making different choices. It is also a stressful moment – expensive, disruptive, and time-pressured.
Renovation decisions often remain visible and functional for decades, making product selection more important than the relatively small share of project cost might suggest.
That is why the role of the installer matters so much. Installers are increasingly acting as trusted advisors rather than simply product fitters. Their recommendations often influence decisions on sustainability, energy management and future smart-home readiness.
The products that get specified during a renovation will be living in that home for a long time. The right choices during a renovation – lower-impact materials, better-designed systems, and smart functionality – turn a renovation into something with lasting value, delivering long-term comfort and contributing to a more circular economy.
Smart control doesn't require disruption
Homeowners increasingly expect connected functionality to be simple, scalable and non-invasive. The challenge is that most existing housing stock was never designed for today's smart home technologies.
One of the biggest barriers to smart living in existing homes is rewiring. Most homeowners are not willing to open walls to run new cabling, and they should not have to. Our Smart Switch Wireless removes that barrier entirely. It uses energy harvesting technology, generating the power it needs from a simple press – no batteries, no cabling required. It can be positioned anywhere and connects seamlessly with ABB-free@home® actuators to control lighting, blinds and scenes.
Across apartment and villa renovations, smart control is increasingly being added without opening walls or changing existing layouts. Wireless switches and centralized logic allow lighting, blinds, and scenes to be upgraded quickly, giving homeowners immediate comfort benefits while preserving the character of the space.
Support for Matter and Thread is helping overcome one of the biggest historical barriers in smart homes: interoperability. Homeowners can combine products from different manufacturers while maintaining a single, coherent user experience and avoiding vendor lock-in.
The Matter Bridge lets homeowners control their ABB system from platforms like Apple Home, Google Home, and Alexa. The Matter Controller works the other way – it brings third-party devices like smart plugs, thermostats, and sensors into the ABB system. Homeowners can renovate once and keep adding devices over time, without being locked into a single brand.
This is what makes wiring accessories more than a design choice. When they integrate with ABB-free@home®, they become part of a wider comfort and energy-saving strategy – switches that talk to blinds, lighting, heating, and security, all under one system.
Making sustainability visible
Sustainability resonates with homeowners in principle, but in practice it remains a harder sell – these products carry a higher price point, and that gap still needs to be bridged through clear communication of value.
When sustainability is invisible, it is hard to communicate value. When it is concrete and tangible – when you can explain that the switch on the wall was made from certified circular materials, in a net-zero factory, verified by an independent declaration – it becomes a genuine differentiator.
For installers and specifiers, there is an opportunity to make sustainability part of the conversation from the first site visit. Because the products people interact with every day shape how they experience a home, the most visible details can also become the clearest proof points of long-term value.
The light switch has always been the most human touchpoint in a home. Connect it to a system that grows with the home, and it stops being a finishing touch – it becomes part of how that home is lived in for many years to come.
About the author
Raimondo Salandra is the Business Line Leader for Home Solutions within ABB’s Smart Buildings division. The business provides integrated smart home solutions designed to enhance energy efficiency, comfort, and safety in the residential sector. In this role, Raimondo holds profit and loss (P&L) responsibility, overseeing all operations from R&D to sales, globally, and he is based in Italy.Raimondo joined ABB’s Electrification business in 1996 and brings extensive expertise gained in a global environment across multiple industries, divisions, and cultures. Over his career, he has held leadership roles in supply chain management, logistics, engineering, and operations within large-scale manufacturing facilities in Italy, China, and the U.S. Beyond operational leadership, Raimondo has managed regional end-to-end business operations in Egypt & Central Africa and India, integrating sales and operations to drive performance and growth.He also played a pivotal role in establishing Global Commercial Operations for ABB’s Electrification Business Area, leading a team of more than 2,000 employees while based in the United Arab Emirates. With a proven track record in strategic execution, cross-functional leadership, and global business management, Raimondo continues to shape the future of Home Solutions through innovation, operational excellence, and a customer-centric approach. Raimondo holds a bachelor's degree in industrial technology engineering from Politecnico di Milano and an MBA from SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan.
