Our new world must be a greener one

The COVID-19 global pandemic has exacted an unprecedented toll on humanity and has caused untold disruption around the globe.

Yet while the impact of coronavirus continues to be felt everywhere, there are glimmers of hope starting to emerge of a life after the virus.

Governments around the world are now working out what life could be like after lockdown.

While many are starting to look to this post-lockdown future with hope, many more see this as a once-in-a-lifetime strategic opportunity to tackle the other great threat of our time;  the climate crisis.

Global warming

There are growing calls within the international community that any economic and social recovery plans take into account the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

In fact, last week environment ministers from 30 countries held an online conference to discuss how to organise a green economic recovery after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is over. 

There are suggestions that a green global recovery could spur global GDP by as much as $100tn.

Here at Mitsubishi Electric we are passionate about delivering sustainability and changes that really do make things better.

For us, this translates into the products that we deliver, ensuring that energy efficiency is at the heart of our solutions for the built environment.

This is a major part of our commitment to advancing our range of products using lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants.

Last year we achieved our goal of being first to market with an R32 Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) air conditioning system. This meant we could offer our customers low R32 refrigerant across a complete building, or an entire network, thanks to our R32 product range.

No refrigerants

Taking our commitment to sustainability even further, our Hybrid VRF system has removed the need for refrigerants within occupied spaces altogether.

This also overcome the challenges of leak detection for businesses, and helps significantly reduce annual maintenance costs by minimising or even removing the need to test and recalibrate individual detection units.

Hybrid VRF uses water throughout its pipework instead of refrigerant but is still able to simultaneously heat and cool different rooms or spaces and offers high operational efficiencies while minimising the global warming potential (GWP) of the system.

We ran a recent webinar focusing on these solutions against the bigger picture backdrop of the future of air conditioning and hybrid technologies.

With the next F-Gas phase down due to take place in January 2021, and in light of the current global pandemic and ongoing climate disaster, this is a good time for businesses to be thinking about how they can make small changes that have a big impact.

The use of lower GWP refrigerants and hybrid technologies does just that.

Futureproofing your business

Hybrid solutions are becoming more of a necessity and can offer a greener solution and lower environmental impact than traditional refrigerant-based solutions.

Organisations looking to reduce energy consumption and also take a greener approach to their property management should consider Hybrid VRF as offering a more flexible and reliable option.

The world after COVID-19 is still very uncertain. One thing we can be certain of though is that the climate crisis will remain.

Businesses need to do what they can to ensure they are futureproofed against rising uncertainty, but also that they are doing their bit to increase energy efficiency where they can.

The choice of refrigerant and the air conditioning system they use can go some way into helping increase that efficiency.

If you would like to know more about our range of HVRF systems follow this link to find out more.

If you’d like to tune in to our next webinar, looking at the highlights of our 2020 Product Catalogue, you can sign up by clicking here.

Mark Grayston is Head of the Product Marketing Department.