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On Thursday 26 June, AREA and its members will be celebrating World Refrigeration Day 2025.

This year’s theme celebrates the incredible range of skills that make modern life possible through refrigeration, air-conditioning, heat pumps, and sustainable heating technologies. From hands-on technicians to engineers, trainers, researchers, and innovators – 'Cool Skills' (#WRD2025 #CoolSkills) honours the human expertise that keeps our world cool, warm, comfortable, and sustainable.

On this occasion, we are delighted to share some activities that AREA members are hosting on and around this key day for our sector:

cni

CNI will launch the #COLDERTHAN challenge (BY CNI) on social media one week earlier:

What's it about?

A short and fun online video challenge (recorded on a mobile 30secs) where students (and vocational training centers) show in 30 seconds:

👉 What is the "coldest" thing you can say, do, or teach?

With humor, creativity, and a reference to the profession. Examples:

  • “I'm colder than an evaporator at rest”
  • “When they leave me alone with the split unit: love at first sight”
  • “Do you know what my favorite refrigerant is? R-Amor 410A 💙
  • Showcase a freezing installation with epic TikTok-style music

Format: Videos recorded on a mobile phone, 30-45 seconds maximum

Upload location: Each center publishes it on Instagram or TikTok with the official hashtag: #ColderThan, #CNIChallenge, #WorldRefrigerationDay

Who's participating?

  • Refrigeration training centers (technicians, students, teachers)
  • Young installation companies or those eager to laugh at themselves
  • CNI and its associations sharing the best videos

 

CNI will also be a member of the evaluation committee for the 2nd iClima Awards for excellence in thermal and air conditioning installations in Spain. The awards ceremony and gala dinner will be held on June 25 in Madrid, and the iClima 2025 Awards will be presented to installation companies in the following categories:

  • Energy Renovation Project
  • Heat Pump Project
  • Sustainable Integration Project
  • Critical Infrastructure Project: Data Centers and Hospitals
  • Installation of the Year
  • Installation Company of the Year
hufgasOPSE

For the first time, Greece will be celebrating World Refrigeration Day, with a full day of conferences at the National Technical University of Athens

OPSE's President Mr. Dimitrios Kontousias as well as the General Secretary Mr. Pantelis Chaviaras will be co-chairs, and other keynote speakers as Trevor Matthews, passionate trainer, mentor and many others.

More information on the event website and in the pdf program below 👇

apirac

APIRAC is organising the seminar ‘Standardisation in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning 2025’ on 26 June at the Montepio Geral Mutual Association Auditorium in Lisbon.

The event is part of APIRAC's activities within the Portuguese Quality System (SPQ), as a Sectoral Standardisation Body (ONS APIRAC), together with the Portuguese Quality Institute (ONN-Portugal), which includes two Technical Standardisation Committees CT 56, ‘Refrigeration - Refrigeration installations and applications’ and CT 185 AVAC – ‘Applications, systems and management of installations in buildings’. Given this status, ONS APIRAC has exclusive responsibility for dealing with issues related to standardisation in Portugal, in terms of producing normative documents for the sector, as well as monitoring normative activities carried out at European and international level, in the respective bodies (CEN, CENELEC, IEC and ISO).

The main objective of the event is to publicise the most recent standardisation work produced by ONS APIRAC, Standards and Technical Guides, and to discuss highly topical issues in the field of standardisation. The programme includes content of interest to both areas – Refrigeration and Air Conditioning – with each part of the day dedicated to the intervention of each of the Technical Committees.

More information about this event content and participants (in Portuguese) can be found here: https://apiracapirac.wixsite.com/ons2025. You can also find a English translation of the program below.

frixis

In preparation for World Refrigeration Day 2025, Frixis is interviewing partners from the HVAC-R sector on the topic of ‘Cool Skills’. We want to find out what skills will be essential for the technicians of tomorrow and how education and industry can work together to train young people for this future-oriented sector.

We ask them to tell us about their career paths, their vision of technical education and the role that natural refrigerants play in this field. We also discuss how schools and businesses can work together to address the shortage of refrigeration technicians and the policy measures needed to encourage more young people to pursue training in HVAC.

AEFYT

AEFYT, along with other related associations, will celebrate World Refrigeration Day with a special event at AEFYT Headquarters. More information about this event can be found HERE.

All AREA representatives are welcome to attend! AEFYT will be happy to welcome you.

IRI

The Institute of Refrigeration Ireland (IRI) will be hosting a special webinar on the forthcoming Enquiry Process for the EN 378 Refrigeration Systems standard.
The speaker will be Espen Rønning of VKE, the Norwegian HVAC and Refrigeration Association.
It is free to attend and all are welcome.
The QR code is the link below, or see the Events page at www.iri.ie
The time is Dublin / London.

ATF

ATF and Centro Studi Galileo have asked their partners to provide a video showcasing the “cool skills” of their companies, in order to promote what means to be part of the “coolest day of the year” and let people know how much Refrigeration is more and more important in their everyday lives, and how our sector is capable to offer them all a long and exciting career.

All videos can be found HERE
 

NVKL

Webinar: NVKL started WRD with a webinar of one hour to inform our sector about the F-gases and all the important rules, regulations and deadlines. This webinar was given by Zohar Tzur (NVKL) and Claudia Roelfsema (Rijkswaterstaat). In total, 170 participants joined.

LinkedIn: From March 27 until June 26, NVKL organized a ‘Kies voor Koudetechniek’ campaign to inform young people and lateral entrants about our sector and the job opportunities. They held a competition and asked their members to upload a photo of an activity to promote the sector and inspire young people. You can find the three winning photos in this LinkedIn post

Instagram: NVKL posted a video of a wholesale where they use large refrigerators and freezers to keep products in good condition.
 

KFCh

Already for the sixth time, on June 26th - the birthday of Lord Kelvin, KFCh celebrated WRD. This year's theme, "Cool Skills," emphasizes the core competencies and training required to operate sustainable, efficient cooling systems essential for health, comfort, and modern infrastructure. The campaign aims to spotlight professionals, as their specialized knowledge forms the basis for the development of refrigeration, air conditioning, heat pumps, and other low-emission cooling systems.

They disseminated information about the holiday through their website HERE