WRD, taking place every year on 26 June, was conceived to highlight the part that refrigeration plays in everyday life, and supporting events range from celebrating achievements, bringing the industry to the attention of consumers and young people, to educating those both inside and outside of the sector.
The date is no coincidence as the physicist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, was born in Belfast on 26 June 1824. In 1848, at the age of 24, he developed the thermodynamic temperature scale. Even today, the absolute temperature is still measured in units of Kelvin in his honour.
Patrick Koops, head of public relations at Bitzer in Sindelfingen, said: “Our industry is largely unknown to the public. Few people are aware of the immense importance of the products we make. World Refrigeration Day is a good opportunity to put more emphasis on the importance of our industry; not just the supply of food, but also healthcare, air conditioning in office buildings or special medical applications would not be possible without refrigeration and air conditioning. That’s why we at Bitzer immediately chose to support World Refrigeration Day.”
Meanwhile, Airedale International is a sponsor of the inaugural event. Darren Farrar, marketing manager at Airedale International, explains: “We are proud to sponsor a day that recognises the ground-breaking works that the industry has achieved. There are life-saving and game-changing technologies in our day-to-day lives that require refrigeration and air conditioning to enable them to function properly.
“For example, life-saving vaccinations need to be kept at specific temperatures to be effective; without them, whole communities would suffer. Hospital equipment has to be cooled in order for it to work properly and across the world, surgeons rely on air conditioning systems to be able to do their jobs safely and effectively. Perishable foods are kept much longer without contamination and can be transported to areas that need it, due to effective refrigeration.
“Therefore, we were really keen to get involved in the inaugural World Refrigeration Day to highlight the incredibly important contribution the cooling industry makes to all our lives.”
Climalife is celebrating WRD by giving away ice creams at its UK headquarters. Those who are in the area are invited to visit Climalife’s Bristol office at Green Court, Kings Weston Lane, Avonmouth BS11 8AZ. It has also released a special WRD video on Youtube, which can be viewed here.
Emerson, meanwhile, is releasing a series of educational resources. The company is shining a spotlight on sustainable refrigeration in particular, as UN commitments and regulations across the globe mandate that food retailers and other organisations phase-down environmentally damaging hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in favour of more environmentally friendly alternatives.
“We are excited to take part in the first annual World Refrigeration Day,” said Eric Winandy, director of integrated solutions, Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions. “The challenge of phasing-down HFCs and shifting to more sustainable refrigeration systems has been an important topic in Europe, and we hope this day helps spread awareness of the sustainable refrigeration options available. It is particularly important to food retailers who arguably rely the most on refrigeration to preserve our food supply.”
Emerson has produced a new four-part video series to help food retailers and other organisations understand the latest regulations and sustainable refrigeration systems available. The first installment of the educational series, ‘Why retailers need to switch to more sustainable refrigeration’, is now live and available here.
Other topics covered by the video series include how natural and low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants – such as Propane and CO2 – are ideal alternatives to HFCs; an overview of the different sustainable refrigeration system architectures available; and refrigeration safety. They will be released over the coming months on the Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions YouTube channel.
In addition, Dr Rajan Rajendran, vice president, System Innovation Center and Sustainability for Emerson Commercial and Residential Solutions, has taken part in a 90 minute ASHRAE webinar on the responsible use of refrigerants. The webinar, ‘Refrigerants for Life: How Refrigerants Affect Modern Life’ is available here.
One of the objectives of WRD is to highlight the industry to young people and encourage them to consider refrigeration as a career.
Trane UK decided to tackle this by inviting six students from a local school into the company for an overview of life and refrigeration.The students, all considering a career in engineering, had a taste of life as a service engineer and a sales engineer.
At the end of the day, they were presented with certificates by the Deputy Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane.
The students commented that they discovered an industry they had known very little about, and were excited about the opportunities it offered. They enjoyed learning about refrigeration on a larger scale, as well as hearing about Trane’s policy of being carbon neutral, and the efforts of industry at large to become environmentally friendly.
The science teacher accompanying the students, Elliott Gould, said: “I'm not aware of any other trade proactively bringing itself to the attention of local students in this way. It’s very interesting and I’ve learned a lot more about refrigeration myself!”
Trane UK marketing leader Gary Case added: “It makes me feel so proud to see these young engineers here and by doing this, I’ve discovered that there’s a real level of interest for similar presentations from other local schools and colleges, so I’m looking forward to developing these opportunities.”
For more information on World Refrigeration Day, visit www.worldrefrigerationday.org.