Core Issues

Throughout the activities of Eurovent and its members, several core issues prevail that receive particular attention. These are outlined below.

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

Firstly, we regularly highlight the importance of ensuring a good indoor air and the central role state-of-the-art ventilation and filtration technologies play in this respect. Eurovent and its national Member Associations do so in close cooperation with REHVA as well as leading European universities and research institutes.

Throughout the past decades, there has been a wide-ranging scientific debate on IAQ in Europe and beyond. Private and public organisations have tackled this issue through various initiatives and reports. While energy efficiency receives a strong attention of the public and policy makers throughout Europe thanks to measures such as Energy Labelling and Ecodesign, IAQ is not yet there.

Given that people spend around 90 percent of their time indoors, we believe that this situation should be changed. This is also supported by the following arguments – to name just a few:

• The short, mid and long-term cost savings and health-related benefits through providing healthy indoor air are unneglectable and have been proven through multiple academic contributions.
• Reducing the energy demand of a building or product saves costs on the energy side. Providing a healthy indoor air results in positive impacts on, for example, human health or work performance. These effects deserve more attention in life cycle cost calculations and legislation.
• We are confronted with a growing world population that is ageing rapidly. The global costs for healthcare are projected to increase exponentially. Ensuring healthy indoor spaces can slow down this increase.

It is our joint aim to raise awareness on the importance of healthy indoor air among the public and policy makers, emphasising that IAQ pays off. Eurovent and its members work towards IAQ finding its way into national, European, and international legislation.

The overall goal is to make IAQ a topic that does not need to hide behind other core issues, such as energy efficiency.

Energy Efficiency

Manufacturers within the Eurovent network set global benchmarks in the development of highly energy efficient Indoor Climate (HVAC), Process Cooling, Food Cold Chain and Industrial Ventilation technologies. They are supported by a forward-thinking framework of legislation and standards, in whose development Eurovent and its members play an important and proactive role.

Accordingly, energy efficiency is and will remain one of our core issues. Throughout our activities, we support measures that, for instance,

• Help the EU to reach its 2030 energy efficiency targets
• Make old and new buildings more energy efficient
• Ensure the validity of energy efficiency levels stated by manufacturers
• Act as a driver for our industry to maintain the leadership in terms of energy efficiency
• Advocate our energy efficiency ideals internationally

Our association closely follows the development and evolution of legislation such as Ecodesign Regulations, which require manufacturers to decrease the energy consumption of their products by establishing minimum energy efficiency requirements.

While Eurovent and its members generally support these and related activities, we also point out that energy efficiency is not an all-purpose answer.

Digitisation

At Eurovent, we represent manufacturers of Indoor Climate (HVAC), Process Cooling, Food Cold Chain, and Industrial Ventilation technologies. By speaking about technologies, we adapt industrial realities and recognise the ever-increasing ‘Digitisation’ of our sector.

We understand that our industry produces more than just equipment. This has multiple reasons, including:

• Smart technologies are becoming essential for each sector of our industry and its consumers
• Eurovent members are designing Industry 4.0 solutions that allow customers to remotely monitor each single parameter of the thermodynamic cycle, to manage their systems remotely, and to manage the energy consumption in an easy and user-friendly manner
• The Internet of Things is no longer a visionary idea, but available instantly on our smartphones. It enables, for example, the remote control of indoor climate systems

Eurovent realises that the industry it represents needs to be as much as possible receptive towards all kinds of digital developments. We understand that this could involve new levels of cooperation, and an opening up of the association scope beyond manufacturing – following our lead ideal of thinking ‘Beyond HVACR’.

Environmental Challenges

The world sees itself confronted with various ‘environmental challenges’ such as

• Climate Change (Global Warming)
• Emissions that contaminate the atmosphere
• Indoor and outdoor air pollution
• Food safety
• Water shortages

Eurovent and its members are fully aware of these challenges. In fact, we acknowledge that Indoor Climate (HVAC), Process Cooling, and Food Cold Chain Technologies as a major consumer of energy and fluorinated gases, play an essential role in tackling them.

We do not regard this as a burden, but a motivation to further innovate while contributing to green thinking throughout all sectors of our industry and the end-users. It thus goes without saying that our association network supports measures such as

• The global phase-down of refrigerants with a high Global Warming Potential (GWP), a move towards low-GWP alternatives including natural refrigerants
• The implementation and development of credible minimum energy performance requirements such as the Ecodesign framework
• Legislation that incorporates credible air quality requirements
• Global advocacy efforts that carry on these environmental ideals in an effective manner

For decades, Eurovent and its members have been developing codes of good practice (‘Eurovent Recommendations’) to meet environmental challenges. These are regularly updated to reflect the state-of- the-art and are used across the globe.