World Refrigeration Day: Honoring our Climate

Although we honor June 26 as World Refrigeration Day, focusing on refrigeration – and the sustainability opportunities it offers – is a year-round emphasis for us at Trane.

Through our enterprise-wide climate commitment, we are directly addressing climate change by offering alternatives to the way the world heats and cools buildings and moves refrigerated cargo.

It is a growing concern. In developed countries like the United States and Japan, more than 90 percent of households already have air conditioning, compared to just 8 percent of the 2.8 billion people living in the hottest parts of the world[1].

As incomes increase in many parts of the world, however, the demand for air conditioning and refrigeration is growing fast. It is critical for our industry to meet new demand without escalating the rate of climate change. Even now commercial, residential and industrial buildings are responsible for about half of the world’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHA) emissions[2], with HVAC systems playing a significant role in both of these impacts. Meeting new demand in a responsible way depends on two factors: refrigerant selection and energy efficiency.  

Weighing refrigerant options

Refrigerants have been evolving since the beginning of air conditioning. Today climate regulations are accelerating the pace of change and, as always, the choices are never completely straightforward. Engineers must assess and balance many factors: global warming potential (GWP), efficiency (COP), capacity change, atmospheric life, and safety factors.

Trane Engineering Bulletin – November 2017

Maximizing energy efficiency

Approximately 15 percent of the world’s carbon emissions (CO₂e) come from the heating and cooling of buildings. As urbanization accelerates and the world gets warmer, that figure could approach 25 percent by 2030[3].

Designing HVAC and refrigeration systems to meet higher energy efficiency standards is an important factor to limiting the demand for electricity and slowing the rush to build new fossil-fuel power plants. To do our part, we are reducing energy and emissions from our own operations as part of the Trane Technologies Gigaton challenge—a commitment to reduce our customer carbon footprint by one gigaton of CO₂e by 2030.

This is the largest customer climate commitment made by any business-to-business company, and our math shows that this reduction could equate to 2 percent of the world's annual emissions — or, the annual emissions of Italy, France and the U.K. combined[4].

As we like to say at Trane, when it comes to the planet we all call home, “the world is our building.” With this in mind, we hope you will join Trane in committing to the sustainability of our climate. As we honor World Refrigeration Day, let us all commit to a more sustainable future!

[1] “Air conditioning use emerges as one of the key drivers of global electricity-demand growth.” IEA.org.  International Energy Agency, 15 May 2018. Web. 24 June 2020.

[2] Trane Engineering Bulletin – November 2017

[3] https://www.curbed.com/2019/9/19/20874234/buildings-carbon-emissions-climate-change

[4] https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/each-countrys-share-co2-emissions