The inaugural World Refrigeration Day set for this coming June 26 has received a boost from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which is strongly encouraging its members to support the initiative.
World Refrigeration Day aims to raise awareness of how refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat-pump technology and science contribute to modern living and society.
Meeting in Paris to discuss low-GWP refrigerant developments, UNEP’s OzonAction members are encouraging policy makers in the developing world to support the occasion.
The UNEP’s OzonAction group announced that it is encouraging its National Ozone Units to engage and support a number of activities on June 26. These include seminars and workshops; onsite training campaigns; skills competitions; special events for consultants, contractors and end‐users; and technical brochures and promotional material.
AIRAH has thrown its support behind the World Refrigeration Day initiative.
“The growth and success of Australia both as an economy and as a nation is due in a major way to the HVAC&R industry,” says AIRAH CEO Tony Gleeson, M.AIRAH. “From the mining of minerals and metals to the transportation of food across the globe to the expansion of our cities into hot and difficult climates – all of this has been possible due to the evolution and ingenuity of the industry.”
Institute of Refrigeration president Stephen Gill hopes World Refrigeration Day will serve as a means of raising awareness of refrigeration and the role it plays in modern life and society.
“Refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat-pump technologies and applications have evolved out of a human need for food, comfort and thermal processes, with a history dating back centuries,” he says.
“However, it remains a longstanding frustration for those working within the industry that it is not widely recognised that modern life could not exist without it. Nor is there any appreciation by wider society for the skills and knowledge employed on a daily basis by industry professionals.”
Apart from AIRAH and the IOR, many other industry associations and professional bodies, including the UK’s CIBSE and BSRIA, are supported the initiative as an annual event.
Meanwhile, AIRAH will continue to support James Harrison Day. This is celebrated annually on April 17, which marks the anniversary of James Harrison’s birthday on April 17, 1816. Harrison is known as the founding father of refrigeration. He was the first to create ice via mechanical means, laying the foundation for the Australian HVAC&R industry.
James Harrison Day is intended to encourage practitioners and organisations worldwide that manufacture, design, install, and maintain refrigeration equipment and services to schedule some type of recognition event within their own organisations or coordinated locally with others to truly demonstrate appreciation for the achievements of the refrigeration industry.