AIRAH announces roadmap for low-emissions HVAC/R

The Australian Institute of Refrigeration Airconditioning and Heating (AIRAH) announced the launch of the proposed PRIME Roadmap for HVAC/R at its AIRAH Industry Summit 2013 held recently in Melbourne.

The event brought together more than 30 key stakeholders to discuss the way forward to a low-emissions HVAC/R industry. In the lead-up to the AIRAH Industry Summit 2013, AIRAH, with the assistance of many of the stakeholders who attended, developed a 150-page draft discussion paper. “PRIME represents the five pathways to transition,” said AIRAH CEO Phil Wilkinson. “All proposed solutions from the discussion paper have been divided into five categories: professionalism, regulation, information, measurement, and emission abatement.

“In many ways the HVAC/R industry is still fragmented, which makes progress towards lower emissions that much more challenging. What’s required is a strategy, and that’s where PRIME comes in.”

In the lead-up to the AIRAH Industry Summit 2013, industry stakeholders were asked to comment on the issues raised in the discussion paper and to focus on potential solutions. These solutions were then allocated into the five PRIME subject areas. They were further divided by priority, complexity, potential for emission reduction and resources that might be contributed.

Using this data, AIRAH will develop a draft of the PRIME Roadmap. Industry will then be asked to consider the best mechanisms for driving the program forward.

“Through the summit, the HVAC&R industry came together, and now there is a groundswell of support for the pillars underpinning the proposed PRIME roadmap for HVAC/R,” Wilkinson says. “Our vision is for a highly skilled and professional Australian HVAC/R industry that is safe, cost-effective and environmentally effective.”

Wilkinson says consolidating a multitude of viewpoints and bringing the industry together to discuss it represents a formidable task. “The need to transition to low-emission HVAC/R has become self-evident,” Wilkinson says. “So the purpose of the AIRAH Industry Summit 2013 was not to discuss ‘why’, but rather to focus on the ‘how’ and ‘what’ of low emissions. That’s what the summit was all about, and making it happen represented a landmark piece of work.”

The summit was chaired by AIRAH board director Bryon Price. “Our industry has influence and control over a significant component of mankind’s impact on the Earth via emissions and carbon usage,” Price says.

“We have the responsibility and capacity to do something about this. But we also have the responsibility to plan for an HVAC/R industry that is productive and prosperous. We think PRIME could be a pivotal component in accomplishing this.”