The announcement follows a successful 2023-2024 season of the Natural Refrigerant Training Summit series
MILL VALLEY, Calif.--The North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to advance climate-friendly natural refrigerants in supermarkets, has announced the expansion of its Technician Training Program with additional events and on-demand technical training opportunities for organizations. Now in its second year, the program aims to increase training opportunities for refrigeration technicians on the latest natural refrigerant technologies.
The Natural Refrigerant Training Summit—launched in April 2023 in Irwindale, California—will travel to the Pacific Northwest in November 2024. The city and event dates will be announced in late summer on NASRC’s social channels and on nasrc.org/workforce-development.
“We’re excited to continue building on this momentum as we scale the program to support refrigeration technicians in every corner of the country,” says Morgan Smith, senior director of NASRC. “We’re incredibly grateful to the entire refrigeration industry for rallying together to accelerate training offerings for technicians.”
The 2023-2024 season of the Training Summit concluded in May 2024 in Irwindale, California. Co-hosted with Southern California Edison (SCE), it featured three days of free, comprehensive training on CO2 (R-744) and propane (R-290) technologies from leading industry experts and manufacturers. A portion of the event welcomed HVACR students and faculty to network with industry stakeholders.
To date, the series has traveled to three states and garnered widespread approval. More than 1,600 people attended the events, over 900 of whom were technicians and more than 370 were HVACR students and faculty.
To meet the increasing demand for year-round refrigeration training, the organization also now offers private small-group, vendor-neutral courses taught by Rusty Walker, NASRC training director. Through this program, Rusty will travel to individual businesses and craft customized lessons tailored to meet the needs of each group. For more information or to request training, visit nasrc.org/technical-training.
NASRC’s Technician Training Program was inspired by its Workforce Development Assessment, which identified the commercial refrigeration industry’s increasingly critical technician shortage as one of the main barriers to transitioning to natural refrigerants. The assessment outlined data-driven solutions to improve recruitment, training and retention for refrigeration technicians.
The 2024 Natural Refrigerant Training Summit in Irwindale, California, was free thanks to the generous support of premium event sponsors Albertsons, Arctic Cooling Systems, BITZER US, Classic Refrigeration SoCal, Climate Pros, CoolSys, Copeland, Fieldpiece, Hillphoenix and The Arcticom Group.
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 55,000 food retail locations, to eliminate the barriers to natural refrigerants in supermarkets. For more information, visit nasrc.org, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.