Cooling-as-a-Service Global E-Summit Announces Agenda

By Ilana Koegelenberg, Oct 26, 2020, 14:01 4 minute reading

The free virtual event on December 1 will feature case-study panels from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, including natural refrigerant examples.

Some of the confirmed speakers for the upcoming CaaS E-Summit.

The Cooling-as-a-Service Global E-Summit, a free event scheduled for December 1, will feature business leaders employing the pay-for-service cooling servitization model, including case-study panels from Latin America, Asia, and Africa – many of which include natural refrigerant installations. 


“The event will highlight the benefits of servitization as a way to bring energy-efficient cooling systems to the market, while reducing waste in the industries taking part and generating value for the stakeholders involved,” explained Thomas Motmans, Sustainable Energy Finance Specialist at the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE), organizers of the CaaS E-Summit. 


Organizers expect an attendance of 1,000+ people from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Registration is mandatory; to find out more and book your spot, click here.


BASE, along with the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP), manages the CaaS Initiative, which has been working on contracts, pricing models marketing material and events to support the implementation of CaaS projects. The initiative is supporting projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. shecco, publisher of this website, is a supporting partner of Cooling as a Service Initiative. 

By providing an alternative to upfront payment models, the pay-for-service CaaS model is designed to overcome key market and financial barriers and accelerate the adoption of energy-efficient cooling technologies and the use of climate-friendly refrigerant gases.


Day-long agenda

The day-long event will take place from 9am to 8:15pm CET. The Southeast Asia (ASEAN) sessions will take place in the morning, and the Latin American (LATAM) sessions in the afternoon, to accommodate audiences in those regions. 


The CaaS team, together with Dave Mackerness from KAER, a contracting company in Singapore, will kick-off the event with a speech on the rationale for servitization in the cooling industry. KAER is a pioneer in CaaS and has a diversified portfolio of projects that have adopted the service in Singapore, India, and other regions of Southeast Asia.


A case study session will follow where several companies will present their experience with the implementation of CaaS, share customer feedback, and speak to the potential of this business model on the market. The speakers will include Dawie Kriel, Head of Business Development at consultancy Energy Partners Refrigeration (South Africa); and Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, CEO and founder of ColdHubs (Nigeria). The Energy Partners Refrigeration case studies feature ammonia installations, while ColdHubs uses R290 (propane). 


During the afternoon session provider MGM Innova will present one of its flagship CaaS projects in Colombia, and various CaaS incubator companies will provide insights into their implementation process thus far. The panels will outline the adoption of the model in large commercial and industrial buildings, as well as smaller off-grid refrigeration applications.


The event will also include sessions focused on the mechanics of the model, including a deep dive into the CaaS contract and pricing tool, and the investor perspective, as well as sessions dedicated to customers who have already adopted and benefitted from the cooling service. Among the speakers will be Morgan Richmond, Climate Finance Analyst at the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance, who has been actively involved in the development of the pricing model; and Michael Vaccianna, a lawyer from Vaccianna & Whittingham, with whom the CaaS team optimized the CaaS contractual agreement. They will be joined by Jonathan First, Lead Specialist at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), who will lead a panel conversation of investors active in CaaS projects.


The E-Summit will then move to a dedicated session on the value of servitization, its impact on the economy, and its potential as a climate solution and accelerator of the circular economy. This discussion will continue in the afternoon to focus on servitization beyond cooling. These sessions will feature high-profile speakers such as Clay Nesler, VP Global Energy and Sustainability for Johnson Controls, a leading voice in the cooling industry regarding business model innovation and sustainability; and Tomas Naucler, Global Leader of McKinsey’s Aftermarket & Services Practice.


Vaccine deployment


The E-Summit will include a session dedicated to how CaaS is supporting a faster, leaner, and sustainable implementation of refrigeration systems to support an effective and reliable deployment of vaccines across the globe. The key focus of this panel will be on the role of CaaS in repurposing technology to deliver a variety of services to audiences. Toby Peters, Professor in Cold Economy at the University of Birmingham, will moderate a panel of experts on this topic.


The second part of the day will include a presentation by Iain Campbell, Senior Fellow at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), who will share his view on servitization for the cooling industry based on his experience in leadership positions at Johnson Controls and York, as well as his extensive research in models like Lumens as a Service.


The afternoon will feature a session with Jigar Shah, President and Co-Founder of General Capital, previously known as the Founder and CEO of SunEdison. Shah will share his views on the “as a service” model and the potential he sees for the market today, as this model has also shaped power purchase agreements (PPAs) and resulted in the rapid uptake of photovoltaic technology. His valuable experience in business model innovation and entrepreneurship will give the audience an in-depth look into the potential of servitization to support sustainable climate solutions.


More speakers will be confirmed in the lead-up to the Global CaaS E-Summit. 

By Ilana Koegelenberg (@Ilana_Ed)

Oct 26, 2020, 14:01




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