BESA backs World Refrigeration Day campaign highlighting cooling’s critical role

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has thrown its support behind this year's World Refrigeration Day (WRD), using the annual campaign to highlight the growing importance of cooling technologies across modern society.

Held each year on 26 June, World Refrigeration Day was founded in 2018 by Institute of Refrigeration President-elect Stephen Gill and marks the birthday of Lord Kelvin, the pioneering engineer widely regarded as the father of modern refrigeration. This year's theme, "Cool Intelligence", focuses on the often-overlooked role cooling systems play in supporting critical infrastructure and everyday life.

BESA said the campaign provides an opportunity to showcase how refrigeration, air conditioning, heat pumps and sustainable heating technologies underpin sectors ranging from healthcare and food distribution to digital infrastructure and commercial buildings.

Gill, who recently joined BESA's technical team, said the theme highlights a different form of intelligence to that currently dominating public debate around artificial intelligence.

He said cooling and sustainable heating systems quietly support many of society's essential services, from safeguarding medicines and food supplies to enabling comfortable indoor environments and supporting the operation of data centres.

The campaign also comes at a time of growing demand for refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump technologies, driven by climate change, decarbonisation targets and the expansion of digital infrastructure.

BESA technical director Kevin Morrissey said the sector's ability to deliver efficient, adaptable systems throughout their lifecycle represents a key example of smart engineering in practice. He added that the industry's continued growth places increasing importance on recruitment, training and skills development.

The association also highlighted the increasingly close relationship between cooling technologies and artificial intelligence. As AI adoption accelerates, demand for data centre capacity continues to grow, placing greater reliance on sophisticated cooling systems capable of maintaining operational stability while managing energy consumption.

According to BESA, the rapid growth of AI is creating new challenges for cooling infrastructure, including increased energy loads and more complex operational requirements, reinforcing the importance of resilient and efficient building services systems.

The issue of overheating in buildings is also becoming a growing concern across the built environment. BESA noted that increasingly frequent periods of hot weather are highlighting the need for long-term strategies to adapt buildings to a changing climate, including investment in retrofit programmes and modern cooling solutions.

For the property and construction sectors, the campaign underlines the growing importance of cooling and climate resilience as building owners, developers and occupiers seek to balance operational performance, occupant wellbeing and environmental targets.

World Refrigeration Day activities are taking place across the globe at the end of June, bringing together industry professionals to showcase innovation, share knowledge and promote careers within the cooling and heating sector.