Drawdown Australia Keynote Highlights Program for ATMO Australia on July 28

Gene Blackley, Founder & Climate Solutions Advocate for Drawdown Australia – part of the global climate-mitigation program Project Drawdown – will deliver the keynote address at ATMOsphere Australia, which will take place online on July 28. 

ATMOsphere Australia is organized by shecco, publisher of this website, and includes support from the Gold Sponsor, AJ Baker & Sons, and the Silver Sponsor, Arneg.

Project Drawdown has identified refrigerant management as one of the most important climate-change mitigation strategies among 76 currently analyzed by the program. In its most recent report, Project Drawdown said refrigerant management and alternative refrigerants can cut over 100Gt of GHG by 2050 – almost twice what all nations generated in 2018.

Drawdown Australia is one of the Drawdown “hubs” that have also formed in the U.S., Europe and Canada. It is furthering the mission of Project Drawdown in the Australian market. 

“Drawdown Australia will be a unifying education and advocacy hub, facilitating cross-sector collaboration to better unite the actions of researchers, activists, everyday citizens, business leaders, policy makers and governments at all levels,” says the Drawdown Australia website.

In addition to the keynote, ATMOsphere Australia will feature a wide range of other speakers and topics, including panels with suppliers, end users, contractors, policy decision makers and representatives from education: 

• Thomas Motmans, Sustainable Energy Finance Specialist for BASE (Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy). BASE is engaged in expanding the reach of sustainable cooling through the cooling-as-a-service business model.
• Toby Peters, Engineering and Physical Sciences Professor in Cold Economy at the University of Birmingham, U.K.  Peters has developed the concept of Clean Cooling, which aims to deliver sustainable cooling to everyone who needs it globally.
• Jan Dusek, COO, shecco. Dusek will discuss the latest market and policy trends in Australia, New Zealand and the world, with selected statistics from sheccoBase on natural refrigerant technologies.
• A panel will consider the intersection of cooling, climate, and energy, and will have presentations from Alan Pears, Senior Industry Fellow at RMIT University,  Peter Haenke, Manager of Business Development & Transactions at Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), and Michael Shelley, Group Energy & Resource Manager, Woolworths Group.
• A panel entitled “Are we ready for the future?” will feature three women working across the industry who will offer their perspectives: Megan Dinsdale Jones, Sales Engineer for Patton NZ; Jane Hadjion, Founding Coordinator, Engineers Declare; and Ura Sarfejoo, Country Leader, Integrated Technologies – Digital Solutions, at Johnson Controls.
• A panel on “HVAC in Future Building Design: A Way to Accelerate Net-Zero,” will feature presentations from Michael Li, Senior Project Manager (Cities & Policy), Climate Works; Davina Rooney, Chief Executive Officer, Green Building Council of Australia; and Chris Buntine, Sustainability Consultant, Northrup Consulting Engineering. They will consider how zero-carbon buildings represent a critical climate solution. 
• The “The HVAC Revolution: How is the HVAC market changing?” session will look at new opportunities in the HVAC sector, particularly with natural refrigerants, and cover new technology and market trends. The speakers are Michael Hamilton, Managing Director Commercial Sales at Seeley International; and Rob Paul Technical Sales Engineer Industrial Refrigeration AU/NZ, and Graeme Marr, Frick Sabroe Product Specialist Industrial Refrigeration AU/NZ, both with  Johnson Controls Industrial.
• The “Insights from the Contractors” panel will include a range of perspectives. Speakers include Mike Baker, Managing Director at AJ Baker & Sons; and Matthew Darby, Managing Director, Ecochill (Auckland NZ), who will speak about hydrocarbon solutions in New Zealand.
• The “Solutions for the Cold Chain” panel will have presentations from Craig Pickford, Managing Director of CyberChill;  Esequias Pereira, Senior Manager Sales Asia Pacific, Embraco, who will speak on about hydrocarbon trends in commercial refrigeration; and Michael Bellstedt, Manging Director, Minus40, who will talk about CO₂ and NH₃ industrial refrigeration solutions.

For more information, and to register, click here.