The winner of the Sustainability Leader of the Year Award, Brad Semmler, first developed a passion for refrigeration during his apprenticeship.
The Cold Logic technical director has been involved in a number of leading edge projects with the focus on sustainability.
"A sustainability leader needs to be passionate about our industry and especially passionate about environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions," Semmler said.
"Another quality that is important is a determination to see natural refrigerants used in more applications across Australia.
"Knowledge and experience is important to ensure the best sustainable solutions are being developed for Australian industry."
Cold Logic was involved from the very early stages with the concept, design and eventual installation of an ammonia refrigeration project at Sundrop Farms.
"This was a shining light project in sustainability proving on the world stage that tomatoes can be grown in one of the most driest and arid places on the planet," he said.
Semmler was instrumental in the design and engineering of Australia's first heat pump recovery which
generates hot water for an abbatoir.
Cold Logic has been in business for more than 30 years and has been instrumental in the growth of many market segments with expert industrial refrigeration solutions.
Over the past three decades, Cold Logic has helped chill more than 2.8 million tonnes of red meat, 1.4 billion litres of brewed beer, 655 million cases of Australian wine and constructed more than 280,000 square metres of cold storage refrigeration.
Semmler said the company now has 57 staff across offices in Adelaide and Melbourne. Semmler has transitioned from working in maintenance and service to engineering and sales.
"Today I am a partner and director of the business which I love; there is a real sense of achievement when you have been with a business for 29 years," he said.
"We need to be more sustainable than we have been in the past. It is up to us now to engage in new technologies and new ways of thinking to ensure we have a sustainable future for our children and our children’s children."
Semmler bees that sustainability for the HVACR industry means challenging the norms and bringing new technology to established thinking. He said the future is natural refrigerants.
"In the early days it was an interesting trade and I was fortunate enough to be exposed to industrial refrigeration," he said.
"With complex systems and often 24 hour operations, the service mechanic trade was exciting and enjoyable although it was hard work."
Semmler said the industry today has become much more strict about safety. "There is much more responsibility and accountability for the service contractors to be on top of their game; the standards have certainly lifted," he said.
Asked how he sees the industry evolving in the near future, Semmler said there will be a much greater reliance on Co2 and NH3. He said advancements in technology and innovative solutions are leading to a cleaner and more sustainable environment.
"I am particularly excited by the safer, and more sustainable low charge NH3 systems," Semmler said.
"It makes the introduction into non-industrial applications more suitable.
"These changes will also lead to lower energy consumption which ultimately benefits the end user and wider economy."