Propane

North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council Announces First-of-Its-Kind Refrigeration Technician Training Event

Co-hosted with Southern California Edison, the event will provide natural refrigerant technician training from multiple manufacturers and industry experts.

MILL VALLEY, California—February 15, 2023—The North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC), a 501(c)(3) environmental nonprofit working to advance climate-friendly natural refrigerants in supermarkets, today announced the first-ever Natural Refrigerant Training Summit in Irwindale, California April 4 – 6, 2023. Created for refrigeration technicians of all experience levels, the event is free to attend and will offer comprehensive training on the latest natural refrigerant technologies.  

The summit was inspired by NASRC’s Workforce Development Assessment Report recommendations, which outlined the commercial refrigeration industry’s increasingly critical technician shortage. Published in January 2023, the report proposed data-driven solutions to improve technician recruitment, training, and retention to grow the workforce.

“A key takeaway from our workforce development assessment was the need to increase training opportunities and prepare technicians for the transition to climate-friendly refrigerants,” said Danielle Wright, executive director of NASRC. “The goal of this event is to provide convenient, comprehensive, and relevant training for technicians to ensure their ongoing success in the future.”

Leading industry experts and manufacturers will provide concurrent training sessions on CO2 fundamentals, CO2 installation, maintenance and troubleshooting, CO2 case controllers, propane (R-290) self-contained cases, and micro-distributed systems. For a complete list of training providers and up-to-date program information, visit nasrc.org/training.

While the training portion of the event is open to refrigeration technicians, local HVACR students are invited to participate in a networking session on April 4 to increase exposure to natural refrigerant technologies and build industry connections.

The training summit is offered free of charge thanks to the generous support of premium event sponsors: AHT Cooling Systems USA, BITZER US, CAREL USA, Climate Pros, CoolSys, Emerson, Hillphoenix, Parker Sporlan, Piping Industry Progress & Education (PIPE), and The Arcticom Group.

Register for the free Natural Refrigerant Training Summit.

About the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council

The North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC) is a 501(c)(3) environmental nonprofit working to advance climate-friendly natural refrigerants and reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by traditional HFC refrigerants. We collaborate with stakeholders from across the industry, including over 51,000 food retail locations, to eliminate the barriers to natural refrigerants in supermarkets. For more information, visit nasrc.org, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

Announcing Our Nat Ref Summit Trainers!

Announcing Our Expert Trainers!

We're pleased to announce the training providers for the first-ever Natural Refrigerant Training Summit in Irwindale, California. Co-hosted with Southern California Edison (SCE), this free, 3-day event will provide refrigeration technicians with comprehensive training on the latest natural refrigerant technologies. 

Participating technicians can build their own agendas and choose from a variety of concurrent training sessions from the following providers: 

  • Hussmann

  • Kysor Warren

  • Sporlan / Micro Thermo

  • Refrigeration Mentor

  • True Manufacturing

  • Zero Zone

  • AHT Cooling Systems USA

  • BITZER US 

  • CAREL USA

  • Danfoss

  • Emerson

  • Hillphoenix

Space is limited and field technicians will receive registration priority.

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

Premium Sponsors

Basic Sponsors

Featured
Arctic Cooling Systems
Kysor Warren
M&M Carnot

Register Now! Natural Refrigerant Training Summit

Training Summit Registration Now Open!

NASRC is proud to offer the first-ever Natural Refrigerant Training Summit in Irwindale, California. Co-hosted with Southern California Edison (SCE), this free, 3-day event will provide comprehensive training for refrigeration technicians on latest natural refrigerant technologies.

Technicians will have access to concurrent trainings from multiple industry experts as well as an exhibit hall showcasing the latest natural refrigerant products and services. Local HVACR students will also be invited to participate in a networking session to increase exposure to our industry.

Space is limited and field technicians will receive registration priority.

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

Rivacold Brings Natural Refrigerant Expertise to North America as New NASRC Silver Member

Atlanta, Georgia—Rivacold America has joined the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC) as a silver member. Rivacold is a manufacturer of refrigeration assemblies, including compressor receiver sets, open and housed condensing units, packaged and split systems, multi-compressor packs, air cooled and compact condensers, static evaporators, and unit coolers.

Established in Italy in 1966, Rivacold has grown to have a global presence and now offers a number of natural refrigerant technologies, such as CO2 condensing units and R290 packaged units for walk-ins. The company has engineered and installed hundreds of cost effective, efficient solutions utilizing natural refrigerants. More recently, Rivacold has begun to grow their presence in the U.S. market, where they are continuing to emphasize their natural refrigerant technologies.

“While we all continued to monitor the evolution of less environmentally impactful synthetic refrigerants, it became more and more clear that natural refrigerants have a long-term place in our industry. There is a visible trend today with multi-circuited parallel hydrocarbon and CO2 split systems, both of which Rivacold has great experience with. Therefore, when given the opportunity to be a part of NASRC and help accelerate the movement in the market to a more stable and responsible position, it only seemed …… natural and we look forward to getting more engaged.”

-Doug Schmidt, President, Rivacold America

Globally, the supermarket industry has begun to transition to climate-friendly refrigerants with low global warming potential (GWP). Natural refrigerants, including carbon dioxide (CO2), ammonia (NH3) and hydrocarbons, have extremely low global warming potentials and offer technically viable solutions in supermarkets. 

However, despite the growth in natural refrigerant adoption throughout Europe, natural refrigerants are not yet widely adopted in the U.S. due to a unique set of market barriers, such as upfront costs, lack of trained service contractors, and uncertainty around lifecycle costs.

The NASRC is a 501c3 nonprofit focused on taking action to eliminate the barriers slowing the widespread adoption of natural refrigerants in supermarkets and create a more climate-friendly future for refrigeration. The organization works with Rivacold and over 125 other industry organizations to take actions that overcome the challenges associated with naturals. 

 “We are excited to welcome Rivacold to our membership network. We look forward to leveraging their global expertise to add strength to our initiatives.”

- Danielle Wright, Executive Director, NASRC

In addition to Rivacold, NASRC is supported by a strong network of members, which represents over 24,000 supermarket locations in North America, major equipment manufacturers, service contractors, and other stakeholders.

“Our network of members is the driving force that propels our mission forward,” said Wright. “Together, we can move the needle on natural refrigerant adoption in the U.S., and we are pleased to have Rivacold participate in those efforts.”

More information about Rivacold is available at www.rivacold.com/ww/en.

Making Progress: NASRC Progress Group Highlights

With the help of our members and partners, NASRC progress groups are actively addressing the hurdles that are slowing the progress of natural refrigerants. Each NASRC progress group is committed to taking action on a specific hurdle.

Recent Activities

Codes and Standards 

  • Recently, we had the opportunity to provide feedback on IIAR's low-charge ammonia guidance (ARM-LC) and give comment on a draft of the IIAR CO2 Safety Standard. Thank you to our members for your contributions.

  • We are calling for the supermarket industry to voice their support for faster action on codes and standards. Take action to support low-GWP refrigerants by signing the NASRC petition. Remember you can sign both as an individual and on behalf of an organization, forward it on to others!

Utilities and Energy Efficiency

  • The group has been exploring options to develop a broadly-accepted modeling tool to accurately estimate and validate the energy savings of any refrigeration system, include those using natural refrigerants. 

  • Join our next meeting to hear from guest presenters including the DOE Better Buildings Alliance this month and the American Carbon Registry in May!

Contractors and Service Technicians

Interested in getting involved with an NASRC progress group?

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