What is it about the giant ARBS exhibition and seminar event that we attended in Melbourne last week that feels like a secret army just waiting to be unleashed on the electric revolution? Or that should be.
More than 10,000 attendees from the airconditioning and building management systems industries coming through the doors of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in three day.
Bunches of energised young tech nerds with seemingly endless enthusiasm to explain their kit. Sleek, sometimes hulking pieces of sophisticated equipment destined for basements or rooftops of big commercial and resi buildings that will keep the interiors comfortable and healthy. But invisible to the occupants. Like cleanliness, really – noticed mostly in its absence.
Invisibility is a theme that kept cropping up at the event. The people who install and manage these systems don’t seem particularly fond of the limelight. They’re happy as Larry working quietly away among themselves.
But should they be?
The world is now increasingly turning to the way our buildings are managed to solve our net zero problem. That and the human health that can be compromised by poor indoor air quality (IAQ).
At the chairman’s breakfast that launched the event City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece told the audience that the HVAC accounted for 40 per cent of buildings’ greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s a big responsibility and we got the impression in the chats we had with attendees that while this is an industry that’s good at meeting technical demands, it’s not been so well aware of its critical place in the world. Nor its power to shift the dial.
But that is most definitely changing according to Professor Tony Arnel who’s one of the longest standing industry elders and ARBS chairman.
Arnel is acutely aware of the potential and he supported an ambitious seminar agenda for the show that could unleash some of the latent firepower at more influential levels than perhaps it’s had in the past.
For instance, the breakfast included a panel of international experts who followed up Reece’s informative speech.
There was also the opening session that The Fifth Estate was thrilled to moderate was a panel of people at the centre of driving the net zero “plan we need to have”. There was chair of the Climate Change Authority Matt Kean, CEO of the Green Building Council of Australia, Davina Rooney, CEO of the Energy Efficiency Coun, CEO of AIRAH, Sami Zheng and ESD technical lead Mike Rainbow. More on this soon.
Other speakers included broadcaster Jon Faine who delivered a provocative challenge on AI, futurist Steve Sammartino and inspirational health leader Dr Bronwyn King.
Direct technical skills understandably drew the biggest crowds Arnel said and no surprise that among these was a seminar on refrigerants that least damage the atmosphere.
One thing a vast majority of the ARBS contingent get, Arnel said, is that their business is at the pointy end of global warming.
Arnel has noticed a big difference since he took the reins as chair five years ago and during his time observing the industry over many more years.
Chief, he said, is the striving to outperform.
“What I’ve noticed over the decades is a massive amount of competition about who’s the most sustainable; who’s pushing hardest to electrify,” he said.
This has been especially evident in the broad green building movement, but in recent times in the HVAC space “there’s a realisation of how much they all can contribute to electrification and decarbonisation and that they can contribute in a policy sense.”
Especially through leading bodies such as AIRAH and the AMCA, he added.
The realisation is that “not only can they contribute but they can drive the agenda. Rather than passengers along for the ride they can see they are part of the solution.”
We can hope.
ARBS CEO Amanda Searle sees a bright future for the industry for the sector.
The industry itself is growing at about 4 per cent a year but it needs to be much bigger, she said. There’s an estimated shortage of about 50,000 skilled tradespeople in the sector she said.
Engineers in particular have noted the enormous demands coming to the electrical and HVAC sector from rapid expansion of data centre development, alone – let alone the need to electrify every other part of our world.
Searle says it’s a perfect opportunity to encourage more women in the industry.
She told The Fifth Estate there numbers of women at the event were up on previous years many were likely to be in sales, marketing and admin parts of businesses.
“Our industry participation is less than 2 per cent women on the tools,” she said.
Yet, it’s a great industry to spruik for women and young people, she said.
“We want to build momentum. It’s a no brainer.”
But who actually even knows about it? she said.
“People don’t even know this trade exists. No-one leaves school and says they want to work in HVAC.”
So how do they come into the industry?
“They fall into it,” she said. “They meet the most passionate people who’ve been in it forever and talk about how much they love it.”
It works – the industry is sticky. And it needs to catch a lot more converts.