INWIC & WHVACR
WHVACR is a Founding Partner of the International Network for Women in Cooling (INWIC)
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30th November 2022
International Network for Women in Cooling (INWIC) Appoints First President
Colleen Keyworth was appointed President for the 2023 year with Dr. Ina Colombo-Youla as President-Elect to serve the following year.
Paris, 30 November 2022 – Formed this year, the International Network for Women in Cooling (INWIC) has appointed its first President and President-Elect. Colleen Keyworth was voted in by the board as President to serve as of 1 January 2023 with Dr. Ina Colombo-Youla as President-Elect to succeed her in 2024.
The official appointments were made after a unanimous vote during the recent quarterly INWIC board meeting. Representatives from 12 of the 13 founding partners attended the virtual meeting, despite the vast time zone differences, and voted on the nominations that had been previously submitted.
“We want to formally congratulate our newly appointed leaders and wish them all the best in their mission to create a path where none has been before,” said the INWIC Secretariat. “We are confident that INWIC can make a great difference with such strong leaders at the helm.”
The President is elected for a one-year term whereafter the President-Elect will step in to serve as the next president in the following year. The remainder of the board comprises representatives from each founding partner – a delegate plus an alternate with WRD and UNEP OzonAction jointly managing the Secretariat.
During the board meeting, nominations were also accepted for three working groups: Mentorship, Membership, and Media. These working groups will meet on a more regular basis and report back to the board.
Presidential Team Ready for the Challenge
Colleen Keyworth currently resides as the 2022 President of Women in HVACR and has served on the Board of Women in HVACR group for the last nine years. During her tenure, the organization has grown from 100 to over 900 members. She is also the Director of Sales and Marketing for Online-Access for an HVACR web marketing company located in Michigan in the United States.
“This is completely uncharted territory, but I look forward to the challenge,” said Keyworth during her acceptance speech. “It will be important to break down the barriers and learn how to work together, not just in our own silos and districts.”
“INWIC is such an important organization because for the first time ever we are being intentional about uniting women’s industry groups from all over the world,” Keyworth added. “By doing so, we are able to gather resources and share proven strategies and programs in order to skip the learning curve for groups that are just getting started. I am excited to work with Ina and to get to know the rest of the other INWIC partners. I can’t wait to tackle the challenge of bringing everyone together to open up the industry to all people.”
Dr. Ina Colombo-Youla is the Deputy Director General of the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) where she oversees the promotion of the refrigeration industry worldwide. She holds a PhD in Engineering (carbon dioxide refrigeration for retail applications), a master’s degree in Sustainable Energy Systems, and various other degrees. She has published three academic articles on women in the RACHP industry and is an advocate for diversity in the engineering industry, particularly concerning ethnic representation.
“Congratulations to Colleen who will be my role model and mentor before taking over my role as the INWIC president in 2025,” said Dr. Colombo-Youla. “In the meantime, I will promote the INWIC memberships into the women IIR members for instance by organizing an INWIC workshop/meeting during the ICR2023 that will take place in Paris in August 2023. I believe that this network will enable to attract and retain more women into the cooling industry particularly black (African and afro-descendant) woman who are even more underrepresented.”
For more information, contact:
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Ilana Koegelenberg Communications Liaison, World Refrigeration Day |
Rosie Evans Consultant, International Partnerships, UNEP OzonAction |
About INWIC
The International Network for Women in Cooling (INWIC) was established in 2022 to advance the engagement of women, promote career opportunities, and increase their overall participation in the refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pumps (RACHP) sector.
INWIC is led by the World Refrigeration Day (WRD) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) OzonAction as a joint Secretariat, in cooperation with a highly-reputed group of founding partners active in this sector – AIRAH (Australia), AREA (Europe), ASHRAE (Global), CAR (China), FAIAR (Latin America), IIR (Global), IOR (UK), ISHRAE (India), JSRAE (Japan), U-3ARC (Africa), and Women in HVACR (North America).
Find out more via the INWIC LinkedIn Group
About UNEP OzonAction
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
UNEP is an Implementing Agency of the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol. OzonAction strengthens the capacity of governments - particularly the operational focal points known as National Ozone Units - and industry in developing countries to elaborate and enforce the policies required to implement the Protocol and to make informed decisions about alternative technologies.
More info: https://www.unep.org/ozonaction/
About WRD
World Refrigeration Day is an international awareness campaign established by the World Refrigeration Day Secretariat to raise the profile of the refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pump (RACHP) sector. It happens every year on 26 June and focuses attention on the significant role that the industry and its technology play in modern life and society.
More info: https://worldrefrigerationday.org/
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11th April 2022
Key International Associations and UN Team Up to Provide More Opportunities for Women in the Cooling Sector
PARIS, 11 April 2022.– The cooling sector delivers a tremendous number of benefits ranging from public health to food security to productive and comfortable workplaces and homes. It is a truly vital, dynamic, and rapidly growing field that represents a significant source of high-quality employment worldwide. However, this sector has the potential to contribute even more by increasing the number of women in its ranks at all levels and types of jobs, which include diverse professions ranging from CEOs to professors, from engineers to servicing technicians, just to name a few.
To help accelerate this process, a new initiative called the International Network for Women in Cooling (INWIC) has been launched to advance the engagement of women, promote career opportunities, and increase their overall participation in the sector, which includes refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pumps (RACHP). INWIC is led by the World Refrigeration Day (WRD) Secretariat and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) OzonAction in cooperation with a highly-reputed group of founding partners, all of whom are active in this area – AIRAH (Australia), AREA (Europe), ASHRAE (Global), CAR (China), FAIAR (Latin America), IIR (Global), IOR (UK), ISHRAE (India), JSRAE (Japan), U-3ARC (Africa), and Women in HVAC&R (North America).
Although women make up half of the world’s population, they are significantly and visibly under-represented in the RACHP sector in all roles. INWIC seeks to reverse that trend. It is doing so while recognizing that there are many excellent initiatives and structures established by different partners that are promoting women’s engagement in the RACHP field. However, more cooperation and information exchange at the global level is needed to link these individual efforts and make them even more meaningful and impactful, especially in developing countries.
There are over 300 national, regional, and international associations, organizations, and institutions in the RACHP sector, however, initial research indicates that fewer than 20 (5%) of these have sections specifically for women. Corresponding data indicates that where these women’s sections do exist, there is a greater number of women who are actively involved in the committees and structures of these bodies, which in turn increases the opportunities to raise the visibility of women in the sector.
“’You can't be what you can't see!’ There are not enough visible 'women in cooling’ role models. We want to change that,” said Stephen Gill – Head of WRD Secretariat. “We will create a resource for girls and young women to see bite-size videos and read real-life stories from a diverse range of women in different roles within the cooling sector. This will also serve to connect and inspire women currently working in the cooling sector.”
INWIC will connect women in this predominantly male sector, empowering them to succeed through networking opportunities, mentoring, education, to shine as visible role models to change outdated perceptions to leave a lasting legacy to inspire the next generation of women innovators and problem-solvers. It will also offer an opportunity to individual women, especially from developing countries, to get access to experiences and career development opportunities in the field that would otherwise be inaccessible to them.
This initiative contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals : Gender equality for women, including equality of opportunity. Improving livelihoods through job creation and employment. Making cities and people’s lives more sustainable. Climate adaptation and mitigation. Regarding the latter, one of INWIC’s important roles is to serve as a platform to promote environmental stewardship as part of the cooling profession. This includes, among other issues, proper and safe management of refrigerants like HFCs, HCFCs, hydrocarbons and new alternatives.
“The cooling sector is critical for achieving environmental objectives, including the continued success of the Montreal Protocol and for addressing climate change. If they are to meet their compliance obligations, countries need a strong, vibrant, and inclusive cooling sector,” said James Curlin – Head of UNEP OzonAction. “Women represent a tremendous, largely untapped source of innovation and skills for this sector, and they need to be actively engaged if we are to solve the great environmental challenges of our time. INWIC seeks to do just that.”
In the next few months, INWIC founding partners will introduce several programs that directly support individual women and young girls to further engage and find opportunities that can support the advancement of their careers, the attraction to cooling education disciplines, and active engagement with the cooling community.
About World Refrigeration Day (WRD)
World Refrigeration Day is an independent organisation formed in 2019 to raise awareness of the RACHP sector. Its primary focus is an awareness day held on June 26th each year. It is independent of all industry membership and trade associations/societies. It is widely supported and respected for both for its aims and its independence. This wide support makes it ideal to bring together different associations from around the world that may resist similar initiatives if led by one or a small group of associations.
Discussions with a number of these bodies (industry bodies and commercial businesses) and their women’s groups indicate enthusiastic support for the formation of INWIC with support provided by the WRD Secretariat. https://worldrefrigerationday.org/
About UNEP OzonAction
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development. UNEP is an Implementing Agency of the Multilateral Fund of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. OzonAction strengthens the capacity of governments - particularly the operational focal points known as National Ozone Units - and industry in developing countries to elaborate and enforce the policies required to implement the Protocol and to make informed decisions about alternative technologies.
https://www.unep.org/ozonaction/
INWIC Founding Partners
AIRAH: The Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air conditioning and Heating
https://www.airah.org.au/
AREA: the European association of refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump contractors
https://area-eur.be/
ASHRAE: The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers
https://www.ashrae.org/
CAR: Chinese Association of Refrigeration
https://www.car.org.cn/
FAIAR: Federation of Ibero-American Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Associations
https://faiar.net/en/inicio-english/
IIR: The International Institute of Refrigeration
https://iifiir.org/en
IOR: Institute of Refrigeration
https://ior.org.uk/
ISHRAE: The Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers
https://ishrae.in/
JSRAE: The Japan Society of Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers
https://www.jsrae.or.jp/jsrae/Eindex-2.html
U-3ARC: Union of Associations of African Actors in Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning
https://www.u-3arc.org/
UNEP OzonAction: United Nations Environment Programme – OzonAction
https://www.unep.org/ozonaction/
WRD: World Refrigeration Day Secretariat
https://worldrefrigerationday.org/