In January, the President of the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, announced 2023 as the ‘Year of Sustainability’. The announcement is fitting, given that the UAE is set to host the COP28 meeting later this year. As HVACR stands front and centre in discussions related to sustainability, especially in a region dependent on cooling, it is clear that our industry cannot sit on the sidelines and simply watch.

The industry invests billions every year in research and development, and great advancements in sustainable cooling solutions have been brought forward over the past decade. But what more can the industry do if all these solutions, and state-of-the-art technologies, are ignored, misunderstood, wrongly selected and specified, badly installed and operated and maintained by untrained personnel? What sense does it make to discuss minimum energy requirements on legislative levels when we lose 30-40% of efficiency in the field?

We need to see a big push towards education and training to ensure our discussions related to sustainability do not equate to merely greenwashing. Over the years, Eurovent Middle East has organised numerous conferences, workshops, and webinars to increase awareness among MEP engineers and cultivate greater awareness of the latest standards, industry recommendations, and technologies. It has been a good and justified start, but we know we need more.

Offerings for continued education and skill development for our industry are scarce in the Middle East. Yet we badly need better-informed engineers and better-trained technicians. This is why our members invested significant time and efforts into creating a more substantial educational programme which we will launch in the fall, right ahead of COP28. It is time that this lack of education and training is addressed.

The industry shows that by working together, putting competition aside for the benefit of all, great initiatives can happen. This is the spirit of an association, and this is what Eurovent Middle East stands for and is all about. Our members once more show their commitment to great corporate social responsibility, putting people first, and caring for the region and the planet.

We invite all of you to join our efforts to educate the market. Let the Year of Sustainability be marked by action, and not merely words. It is time to make a difference. Subscribe to this newsletter, follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube and watch out for our announcements.

Best regards,

Markus Lattner
Managing Director
Eurovent Middle East