ASHRAE Champions ‘Cool Skills’ for World Refrigeration Day 2025
ATLANTA, Georgia — ASHRAE is proud to join organizations, governments, and industry leaders around the world in celebrating World Refrigeration Day 2025 (WRD 2025) on June 26. This year’s theme, “Cool Skills,” highlights the essential competencies and training required to support sustainable, efficient cooling systems that are vital to health, comfort, and modern infrastructure.
World Refrigeration Day is an international awareness campaign established to raise the profile of the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat-pump sector and focuses attention on the significant role that the industry and its technology play in modern life and society.
The theme of WRD 2025 is “Cool Skills” recognizes the wide range of skills required to deliver sustainable cooling that protects the environment, safeguards human health and comfort and supports modern life in countless ways. The campaign aims to place the spotlight on the professionals whose expertise underpins refrigeration, air conditioning, heat pumps and other low-carbon cooling systems.
“The ‘Cool Skills’ theme aligns powerfully with ASHRAE’s commitment to equipping the next generation of HVAC&R professionals with the tools and knowledge to lead,” said 2024–25 ASHRAE president M. Dennis Knight, P.E., BEMP, Fellow Life Member. “As we face a growing demand for skilled talent across the built environment, our focus on workforce development ensures that the people behind the systems are prepared to meet the challenges of energy performance, resilience, and sustainability head-on.”
As part of WRD 2025, ASHRAE and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) OzonAction continue their collaboration to enhance education and skills training in the RACHP sector. One such initiative is the Checklists to Assess Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (RAC) Plant Sustainability, developed to help plant managers and service technicians benchmark performance in energy efficiency and environmental responsibility. The checklists are free to access with registration, which also enables users to receive updates and provide feedback.
In addition, several web-based learning tools are available to support workforce readiness:
Energy Efficiency Literacy for Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Systems, (Revised) 3.5 hours
The new edition of this course includes updated charts and figures, including ACR energy consumption, adoption of minimum energy performance standards, equipment efficiency ratings and measurements, as well as global land and ocean surface temperature.
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Refrigerants Literacy (SI), 4.5 hours
This course offers a basic understanding of refrigerant types, policies, classifications, and management practices. It is aimed at non-specialists in the field, such as facility managers, policymakers, and other individuals who are involved in refrigerant issues from a non-technical perspective. It also can serve as an introduction to refrigerant basics for those new to the industry. The course is available in English, Spanish and French languages.
Refrigerant Management for Future Engineers (Free university-level course): Offers a technical and policy-based foundation in refrigerant management, co-developed with UNEP and delivered by ASHRAE.
ASHRAE will also spotlight workforce development at its 2025 Annual Conference, held June 21–25 in Phoenix, Arizona, with sessions such as:
- Breaking Barriers, Silos and Ceilings with HVAC&R Careers: AEC Industry's Most Sought After Talent
- Advancing Sustainable Design and Decarbonization: Workforce Development in Climate Solutions and the Built Environment
- Building the HVAC&R Workforce through Partnership
- ASHRAE President’s Message: Workforce is Critical (Livestream)
- ASHRAE’s Workforce Development Summit
In-person and virtual registration to attend the ASHRAE Annual Conference is open now.
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