ASHRAE’s Winter meeting took place in Chicago on January 20-24. The main message, shared with the IIR and other associations having MOUs with ASHRAE, through committee meetings, was the decarbonisation of buildings, in particular with a view to being able to build net-zero emissions new buildings worldwide before 2030. The AHR expo was also organised on this occasion, as usual.
On January 22, 2024, the IIR organised and participated in the International Network of Women in Cooling (INWIC) networking event at the AHR Expo held in conjunction with the 2024 ASHRAE winter conference in Chicago (USA). The event attracted over 60 participants.
IIR presented the preliminary results of a North American survey of members of the ‘Women in HVACR” association as part of a presentation entitled “Women in RACHP”. This survey aims to improve understanding of the background, motivation, challenges, and opportunities faced by women working in the industry. It will be disseminated to other national associations/institutions in the USA until the end of March 2024. The objective is to collect and compile gender data based on the HVACR industry for different world regions. This data will then be compared with the initial worldwide survey of the booklet “Women in Cooling”.
A dynamic and interactive panel discussion was held between several outstanding women from founding partners FAIAH, AIRAH, ASHRAE, WRD and IIR regarding the survey results. They also shared their experiences over the years of working in the RACHP industry, and answered questions from the audience.
In 2024, INWIC will host several national events and planning sessions to organise an international event at the CHILLVENTA exhibition in Nuremberg (Germany) in October 2024.
To find out more about INWIC, visit the website, register and spread the word: https://www.inwic.org/