North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council’s New Report Proposes Solutions to Critical Shortage of Refrigeration Technicians

Findings demonstrate that coordinated, industry-wide workforce development solutions are crucial to enable the transition to climate-friendly refrigerants

MILL VALLEY, California—January 18, 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 publication of a report summarizing the commercial refrigeration industry’s increasingly critical technician shortage. The report proposes data-driven solutions to improve technician recruitment, training, and retention to grow the workforce.

“Anecdotal evidence from NASRC member contractors has long pointed to a shortage of commercial refrigeration technicians,” said Danielle Wright, executive director of NASRC. “We conducted this assessment to find concrete evidence and identify strategies to address this industry challenge.”

The assessment substantiated that the nationwide technician shortage is disrupting essential operations and threatening U.S. supermarkets’ ability to transition from super-polluting hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants. Supermarket refrigeration is one of the leading sources of high global warming potential (GWP) HFC emissions. NASRC estimates the annual climate impact from U.S. supermarket refrigerant leaks to be 55 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

NASRC gathered assessment information through interviews and written surveys from training, service, and human resource stakeholders. Though some national data was collected, the initial assessment primarily focused on California due to stringent regulations that have stimulated the transition from HFCs in the state.

“Our research found that the refrigeration technician workforce is caught in a negative feedback loop,” said Wright. “The shortage leads to demanding schedules, causing technicians to leave the field, further exacerbating the labor market supply issues.”

NASRC will coordinate an industry-wide implementation of the report recommendations, starting with a Natural Refrigerant Training Summit for technicians April 4 – 6, 2023, in Irwindale, California. Co-hosted with Southern California Edison, the event is free to attend and will feature training by leading manufacturers and experts. Learn more.

Download the free Workforce Development report.

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 38,000 food retail locations, to eliminate the barriers to natural refrigerants in supermarkets. For more information, visit nasrc.org, Linkedin, Twitter and YouTube.

Fazio Mechanical Brings Service Readiness Expertise as New NASRC Gold Member

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — Fazio Mechanical Services has joined the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC) as a gold member. The NASRC is an action-oriented 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to removing the barriers slowing the adoption of natural refrigerants in supermarkets to create a more climate-friendly future for refrigeration.

NASRC drives their mission forward with tremendous support from the supermarket refrigeration industry, including over 24,000 supermarket locations, major equipment manufacturers, service contractors, and other industry stakeholders. The organization is structured to leverage the expertise of their members to implement initiatives that will advance natural refrigerants.

 The primary barriers that the organization currently focuses on include upfront and ongoing costs of natural refrigerant technologies, uncertainty around lifecycle costs, and availability of service technicians who are qualified to handle natural refrigerants. Fazio Mechanical Services brings a new expertise to the organization to help drive progress on what the organization calls ‘service readiness.’

“There are a number of factors contributing to the service readiness barrier,” said Danielle Wright, executive director of the NASRC. “Not only is the technician workforce shrinking, but we also see a shortage of training resources and programs for technicians starting with school HVACR programs and continuing into the field. We are excited to work with Fazio Mechanical Services to implement solutions to address this challenge.”

Fazio Mechanical Services is a full-service mechanical contracting company specializing in the design, engineering, installation, and service of supermarket refrigeration systems. Founded in 1988 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the company has grown to be the largest refrigeration contractor in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland. The company also operates in & serves West Virginia and Virginia.

Fazio Mechanical have demonstrated a great commitment to ensuring adequate training for their technicians. They have invested in training their workforce through partnerships with OEM’s, technical institutes, union apprenticeship programs, and internal training programs.

“Fazio Mechanical Services is fully committed to collaboration with our business partners to implement environmentally friendly refrigeration solutions that help reduce carbon footprints as well as mitigate climate change,” said Ross Fazio, president of Fazio Mechanical. “On behalf of our team, we are excited to join NASRC to be able to have more of an industry impact regarding a sustainable environment for the future.”

“We could not do the work that we do without the support of committed industry leaders like Fazio Mechanical Services,” said Wright. “We look forward to partnering with them to continue to drive industry progress and level the playing field for natural refrigerants.”

More information about Fazio Mechanical is available at www.faziomechanical.com.