Stephen Gill, founder of World Refrigeration Day and newly appointed Head of Industry Insights for HVAC Europe at Haier, discusses how a chance encounter led to a 45-year career and ultimately sparked a global movement to raise awareness of the refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump sector.
Refrigeration Industry (Ri): How did World Refrigeration Day come about?
Stephen Gill (SG): Raising the profile of the refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump (RACHP) sector in a positive way has been a challenge throughout my entire career, ever since I first tried to explain what I do to friends and family. It was obvious that our industry is a blind spot to those outside of it, and I'm sure this realization isn't unique to me.
The idea for an industry day started growing in 2004 after attending an industry dinner where the discussion centered on how difficult it is to attract people to join our “hidden” industry. In 2007, I naively posted on social media that April 15th – the birthday of William Cullen, who created ice artificially in 1756 – should be World RACHP Day. Much to my surprise and dismay, the post received no attention whatsoever.
I realized I needed to rethink my approach, though I still believed it was a good idea. As I researched other awareness days, I became aware that most 'World' days aren't truly celebrated around the world at all, only in certain regions. I wanted to do better and knew I had to gain support from as many organizations worldwide as possible to do so.
Ri: How did you go about building that support?
SG: Starting in 2011, I began reaching out to various industry bodies and international influencers, referring to it as World RACHP Day. This was a long, slow process over several years. Each conversation was different, but similar themes emerged: several said the idea wasn't new and had never taken off; most agreed it was good but felt their own organization was best placed to lead it; all suggested alternative dates that suited them; most voiced objections to supporting an initiative led by another association; none wanted to fund it, though some saw opportunities to make money from it.
There was no universal consensus on a date that suited everyone. It felt like one step forward, one step backward.
Ri: What was the breakthrough moment?
SG: The turning point came at the ASHRAE Associate Society Alliance meeting in Long Beach, California, in 2017 – which just happened to be on June 26th. I had an opportunity to speak and proposed the idea of establishing a World Refrigeration Day (WRD). The room went quiet. In fairness, that’s not unusual in those settings, but after a long pause, former ASHRAE President Jim Wolf asked, “But why June 26th? We can’t have a day just because it coincides with this meeting.”
I was pleased to be able to reply that June 26th is also the birthday of Lord Kelvin, the pioneer of the absolute temperature scale and the first to propose the concept that would later evolve into what we now call heat pumps. I added, “We are all connected by temperature, as is the work we do.”
That shifted the conversation. Up until then, one of the stumbling blocks to universal agreement had been which pioneer’s birthdate should be chosen. By focusing on Lord Kelvin and the broader unifying theme of temperature, it helped move things forward. Jim gave a nod – literally – and while there was no formal resolution that day, the seed was planted.
At the same ASHRAE meeting a year later, in 2018, Tony Gleeson from the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH) announced that AIRAH had launched an ‘International Day of Refrigeration’ on April 17th, marking James Harrison’s birthday. When it was pointed out that we had informally agreed the year prior to June 26th, Tony immediately responded with support: AIRAH would shift its observance to align with the internationally agreed date. “It’s important that we all get behind this,” he said.
That moment of unity – shifting from national initiatives to collective action – was the real breakthrough. And that’s how June 26th became WRD: not just the day of a meeting, but a day chosen for its deeper meaning and its power to unite the sector around something we all share – temperature.
Shortly after, on June 26th, 2018, Graeme Fox, a then-to-be future President of the Institute of Refrigeration (IoR) tweeted that today is World Refrigeration Day. However, the big launch was the following year only, so when asked, I always say that WRD started in 2019.
Ri: How did you gain broader recognition?
SG: In addition to support from national associations, I knew from the outset that gaining recognition beyond our industry was essential if WRD was to have truly global legitimacy. That meant engaging with organizations like the United Nations (UN).
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s OzonAction team had long been active at international industry events, often represented by Ayman Eltalouny. I saw their involvement as pivotal. I approached Ayman repeatedly, and over several years. He was always encouraging and interested in the concept but understandably couldn’t commit on behalf of UNEP without evidence of widespread international support.
That breakthrough came in mid-2018, after AIRAH and many others agreed to unite behind the June 26th date. By then, over 90 national associations had expressed their support.
When Ayman mentioned he’d be attending the Chillventa exhibition in Nuremberg that October, I made sure I was there too, determined to share the progress face-to-face. On an unseasonably warm October day, I updated him with the latest developments. That was the moment he’d been waiting for.
Ayman’s support was instrumental. Thanks to him, I was invited to present the WRD initiative at a UNEP-hosted meeting held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on February 19, 2019. That presentation – delivered not to a technical audience, but to national ozone officers and policy makers – marked a major step toward broader institutional recognition.
Some confusion arose later when others recalled my involvement at the UN’s Montreal Protocol Meeting of the Parties in November 2018. I did attend that event, but the formal presentation of WRD to the UN community occurred in Paris in early 2019. That’s when things really accelerated. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and soon associations from across the globe were getting in touch asking how they could take part.
By the time of the inaugural WRD on June 26, 2019, we had around 100 national associations engaged. That global momentum wouldn’t have been possible without the early support, and patience, of people like Ayman.
Ri: What happened on that first WRD?
SG: I had no idea what would actually happen. A couple of days before, I thought about staying in bed and pretending I was sick in case nothing happened. But then it began – New Zealand was first, holding a webinar for students. Then, more and more events started popping up. Because the event wasn't restricted, and nobody needed permission to do anything, it really spread fast. Everyone could make it their own.
I watched it ripple across the world during that day. There were really creative approaches – kids drawing pictures, people going into schools, all sorts of unique events that people organized off their own backs. We counted about 800 activities that first year in around 157 countries. I thought it couldn't get any bigger than that.
Ri: How has WRD grown since then?
SG: After the pandemic pushed everything online, we started seeing explosive growth of online activity, which was easier to track. A couple of years ago, in 2021, when physical events resumed, more than 11,000 events were loaded on the WRD website. Last year, we counted around 17,000 activities in 162 countries. We now have very close to 400,000 subscribers on the website.
Ri: Is WRD achieving its original objectives?
SG: To some extent. Things are changing; the industry’s profile is being raised. But 90% of the conversation is still happening internally within the industry. However, people are now feeling empowered to go out and talk about what they do. Do our neighbors know what we are doing? No, they still don't. Do our sons and daughters know? Often not. While large-scale grand awareness campaigns are important, the real change takes place in our local communities. I can sense movement in the right direction. It's moving, but it's not there yet.
The narrative is changing, though, and I’d like to think WRD has had a hand in that. The focus has given us an opportunity to examine ourselves and has helped connect discussions about inclusivity. There's much more focus on how we present ourselves to the outside world. It's not just inclusivity – it's also energy saving, decarbonization, all the positives that were always there are now being shared.
Ri: Why did you choose “Cool Skills” as the theme for this year’s WRD?
SG: It's to get people in our industry to realize they do have cool skills. When I attend engineering association events, RACHP professionals almost stand back compared to other engineers. I don't think we realize just how specialized we are or how many skills we possess.
We don't give ourselves enough credit. The idea around the theme is to give people more to talk about regarding their cool skills, so we can tell the world exactly what we do and feel better about ourselves and our choice of careers.
Ri: Moving away from WRD a bit, let’s look at your journey into RACHP. How did you personally enter this industry that "no one ever hears about"?
SG: That's fairly easy to answer – it was completely by accident. In 1979, I was working in heavy railway engineering doing an apprenticeship, but the company was declining and eventually went bust. Knowing that this job would not be a long-term career, I went to the local job center to find an alternative, and they informed me of a new, subsidized training scheme. They suggested I get into IT, which was still using mainframe computers then.
I enrolled and went along in the morning to start my training, but they said I wasn't on the list. I'd already quit my job and suddenly had no options. That’s when I heard there was another course in the afternoon on refrigeration and that they were looking for people. So, I returned at two o'clock to meet the organizers, one of whom was Dave Buchanan, a Director of Star Refrigeration, who said something I'll never forget: "If you get into refrigeration, you'll have a job for life. People will always need to eat; they'll always need medicines. Forget computers – you've been lucky." And you know what? I believe he was right!
That was it. I did the year's training totally by accident and never looked back.
Ri: What was your first job after training?
SG: During the Christmas break, I contacted major UK companies asking for work experience. I was the only one on my course who bothered; the others weren't interested. I got a few days with various large companies, and when the course ended, I wrote to all of them asking about jobs. All said no except one – Linde Refrigeration. They invited me for an interview.
It went well, and they took me on. I did an apprenticeship working on the tools, then moved into the office. They said I should be in the office because, while I was good with tools, an office role would engage other attributes that they saw within me. I progressed through contracting and finally into sales within Linde.
Ri: Looking back over your long career, what achievements stand out?
SG: There are so many. Every time you turn on a huge system and it works is rewarding. There's nothing like switching on a system you’ve worked on and hearing it make noise. Some of the refrigeration plants I worked on are still running, which is something special.
I’m so grateful for the opportunities I’ve gotten in this career. It has allowed me to help others in different ways and eventually look at bigger, broader issues. Plus, it connected me to the global community and gave me the opportunity to get involved on that level, too.
As time went on, I’ve realized that even though we're all speaking different languages around the world, we all speak refrigeration. It's a universal language, and there's this sense of community. We're all having the same conversations – about oils, training staff, recruiting, attracting young people – whether we're in different countries or continents. And that connection is so important.
Ri: You recently joined Haier as their Head of Industry Insights for HVAC Europe. How does this fit in with your mission?
SG: I'm very happy to be working for them. Haier is a leading company that's expanding, they have great products, and it's great to be part of such a global, innovative team. Importantly, they are very aware of my involvement in WRD and encourage me to continue with this and other related projects, such as Engineering Differently and Cooling for Good.
Ri: Any final thoughts on World Refrigeration Day?
SG: WRD was truly created for the greater good, not for financial gain or personal gain. It's not dependent on funding or one person – it can carry on its own. You don't need my approval to do an event for WRD. Just get on and do it. That’s the beauty of it.
I think people working in the industry are passionate about the RACHP, and it's about letting them off the reins to celebrate however they want. The structure of WRD empowers them to make the day their own. That really frees them up to be creative, and we really have some amazingly creative people in the industry.
So, I'm excited to see how this event evolves as more people make it their own and get creative. We really have an incredible industry, and we should celebrate it.
What Are YOU Doing for World Refrigeration Day 2025?
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