AIRAH has created a new Special Technical Group (STG), which focuses on resilience.
The AIRAH Resilience STG joins others dedicated to ESD, solar cooling, backflow prevention, and refrigeration.
AIRAH CEO Tony Gleeson said the Resilient Design Institute defines resilience as the capacity to adapt to changing conditions and to maintain or regain functionality and vitality in the face of stress or disturbance.
"It is the capacity to bounce back after a disturbance or interruption of some sort, especially extreme weather events," he said.
“AIRAH aims to be the leading independent voice for the industry on resilience, sustainability, compliance, innovation and the transition to low-GWP refrigerants.
"The formation of the Resilience STG fits right in with our strategic focus in this area.”
The AIRAH Resilience Special Technical Group aims to increase awareness of resilience as a design principle, gather knowledge of resilient design approaches, generate resilient design tools and strategies, and fill in resilience knowledge gaps specific to the HVAC&R industry.
Co-chair of the new group, Paul Stoller, said today's world is one of extreme weather events such as bushfires, cyclones, floods and heatwaves.
“There are chronic stresses such as temperature rise and more extreme weather. Then there are the possible stresses such as urbanisation, energy costs and risk management. A means of dealing with all this is resilience," Stoller said.
AIRAH’s newest STG kicked off with a workshop earlier this year. Participants from a number of industry sectors gathered to envision a more resilient future, pinpointed some of the challenges stifling a more resilient built environment, and identified knowledge gaps and technical shortcomings.
AIRAH executive manager – government relations and technical services, Phil Wilkinson, oversees the Institute’s STGs.
“The STGs represent a fantastic resource for AIRAH as they contain an incredible wealth of knowledge that simply needs to be tapped," Wilkinson said.
"As part of my technical remit, I’ll be working closely with the Resilience STG to harness the information and considerable talent of those involved.”
AIRAH members on the Resilience STG committee include Paul Stoller (co-chair), Liza Taylor (co-chair), Nicki Parker and Nick Asha.
For more information about AIRAH’s STGs, or to get involved, go to www.airah.org.au/STG