Amid a high level of interest from members, IIAR’s newly established Energy and Sustainability Committee will have its inaugural meeting at this year’s annual conference in Orlando. At last year’s IIAR Annual Conference, after much discussion and deliberation, the IIAR chairman appointed a task force to investigate the needs of the industry’s enduser community with regards to energy and sustainability in their facilities, said Bruce Nelson, speaking on behalf of the committee.

ommittee. The Energy and Sustainability Committee will be tasked with delivering educational materials including best practices, influencing energy codes and standards, advocating with governments and power utilities to better support sustainability and energy-efficient practices as well as researching various related topics, Nelson said.

According to Nelson, there is potential for tremendous growth in the industry as it pertains to energy efficiency and sustainability, particularly in the form of education to create better competencies at the design and plant-operations level. This can also take the form of the addition of an Energy and Sustainability Specialist role to the Academy of Natural Refrigerants curriculum, as well as the development of more energy- and sustainability-specific ANR course content. Prioritizing this type of education would be a boon for the industry, he said.

“I am convinced that energy efficiency is good business, both on an economic and environmental basis,” Nelson said. “Not only are natural refrigerants environmentally friendly, but they are also highly energy efficient. This new committee seems to have struck a chord with our end-user members judging from the tremendous response and commitment to participation.”

Illustrating the high level of IIAR’s commitment and interest to these topics, Nelson said more than 48 IIAR members have expressed interest in attending the committee’s first meeting at the Orlando conference, where the exact scope and purpose of the committee will be discussed and agreed to. It’s also expected that its initial objectives will be defined, and subcommittees will be set up.

Nelson also noted it is particularly interesting that the level of interest from IIAR’s international members has been “significant.”

“The response to our invitation to the inaugural meeting has been tremendous and encouraging,” Nelson said. “Strong leadership has been identified and growth in participation and activity is expected going forward.”