NASRC executive director, Danielle Wright, was recently named Person of the Year at the 2024 ATMO America Summit. The Person of the Year award celebrates a single individual who has shown exceptional leadership to advance natural refrigerant technology solutions in North America.
This recognition is a testament to Danielle’s unwavering commitment and pioneering efforts to advance natural refrigerants and reduce hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions. In the past year, Danielle has spearheaded numerous NASRC initiatives to drive critical solutions for the commercial refrigeration industry, including:
Workforce Development
Launched a new Natural Refrigerant Training Summit series, which has trained over 900 technicians on the latest natural refrigerant technologies.
Introduced a new Technical Training Program with NASRC training director, Rusty Walker, to provide vendor neutral, small group, and customizable trainings by request.
Hosted 4 student networking events that have introduced over 370 HVACR students and faculty to industry stakeholders.
Initiated a new HVACR Faculty Training Pilot to prepare school faculty to expand their programs to include deeper coverage of supermarket refrigeration and natural refrigerants.
Funding
Secured position as third-party administrator of California Air Resources Board (CARB) F-gas Reduction Incentive Program (FRIP), a $65MM incentive program to accelerate the adoption of <10 GWP refrigerants across California.
Supported natural refrigerant installations in New York State (NYS) through a grant from the NYD Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that coordinates funding support for remodel projects located in disadvantaged communities.
Supported information sharing and workforce development grant deliverables for the 13 food retail sites that received grants under the initial CARB F-gas Reduction Incentive Program (FRIP) program.
Worked with other states to support incentive program proposals in EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) applications.
Education
Forecasted the adoption of CO2 by US retailers over the next 5 years and published a summary of results to help the industry prepare for the increase in demand over the next five years.
· Launched CO2 Technical Committee to develop data-driven technical guidance to improve CO2 resiliency in food retail refrigeration.
Strengthened our member network to over 180 organizations from every sector of the commercial refrigeration industry—including service contractors, manufacturers and suppliers, consultants, engineering firms, utilities, trade associations, nonprofits, schools, and over 55,000 food retail locations.
Danielle Wright's recognition with the ATMO Award/North America for 2024 is a well-deserved honor that highlights her exceptional contributions to advance sustainable refrigeration solutions for the industry. Read more about the award and the winners of the other categories here: https://naturalrefrigerants.com/atmo-america-target-lineage-logistics-dorin-and-wright-win-atmo-awards/.