REHVA Annual Meeting 2024

This May, REHVA was happy to host its 2024 Annual Meeting.

On Wednesday May 15th, our annual meeting started with the Mechtalks Conference (https://mechtalks.com/en/) We discussed on various topic with a special focus on climate crisis and sustainability. After this full day of Conference and discussion, TTMD invited us to a Welcome Reception capturing amazing pictures on the unforgettable Bosporus night cruise. We were surrounded by REHVA members associations and supporters!

On May 16th, REHVA organized all its committee meetings. Each committee was reunited to discuss the 2023 reports and future projects! The day continued with our REHVA Student Competition. 13 teams, composed of 15 of the most prestigious future engineers, competed in the REHVA Student Competition. We are happy to announce that Joao Mota was named winner of the competition for his project focusing on “Acoustic Assessment of a Novel Visor Concept with Aerodynamic Sealing for Medical Protection”. Insert picture 4

All students were then invited to participate to our REHVA Gala, a chance for them to celebrate the end of the competition. We were all reunited, REHVA team and network to share a dinner of Turkish specialties!

The Educational and Training Committee was chaired and moderated by REHVA Board Member, Livio Mazzarella. During the meeting, the committee discussed its strategic objectives, as it is to develop and support continued education in the field of HVAC with the aim of contributing to a European wide professionals’ technical re-skilling and up-skilling. The committee emphasizes its objective to support Member Associations in the organisation of educational seminars and short courses, or direct organisation on request of the Member organisation. They will continue their activity of students' competitions.

During the Publication and Marketing Committee (PMC) meeting, the chairs and the secretary presented the members with a comprehensive report on the 2023 activities. They also introduced a new REHVA Strategy for publications, which outlines a forward-looking plan that includes increased cooperation with the Technical and Research Committee (TRC). This strategic plan focuses on enhancing the quality, reach, and impact of REHVA's publications. Additionally, there was a discussion on involving REHVA Supporters to sponsor publication activities, further advancing the organization's efforts and resources.

The Technical Research Committee (TRC) meeting, held back-to-back with REHVA’s 2024 Annual Meeting, gathered around 40 experts from different Member Associations and representatives from Supporting Companies. The Activity Plan for the current year was revised and approved, and membership was expanded with the addition of new delegates from FINVAC, PZITS, and CIBSE—the Member Associations from Finland, Poland, and the United Kingdom, respectively. Additionally, the TRC welcomed a new representative from Daikin.

The latest EU Policy Updates were presented by Jarek Kurnitski, the TRC chair, and extensively discussed. The TRC will soon publish additional technical guidelines to support Member States in implementing the recently published EPBD recast.

Each chair provided an overview of the active task forces and the planning for technical outcome publications. The topics targeted for 2024 are diverse, including active task forces on Occupant Targeted Ventilation, Heat Pumps, Evaporative Cooling, and Instantaneous Wastewater Heat Recovery. Furthermore, the latest TRC meeting approved a new task force on Hospital Ventilation, introduced the idea of a Building Indoor Climate and Energy Modelling Certification, and celebrated the successful closure of the recently finalized Resilient Cooling task force. The latter published a guidebook as a result of a collaboration with IEA EBC Annex 80, which will be publicly launched in June.

As part of strategic decisions for the future, the TRC approved a set of guidelines and new templates to facilitate the production of valuable technical knowledge and to enhance coordination and collaboration with other REHVA Standing Committees.

In the framework of the Supporters Committee meeting. The Chair of the Supporters Committee, Kemal Gani Bayraktar, welcomed Francesco Robimarga, the new REHVA Policy and Advocacy Officer to the audience. Francesco gave a short introduction about him, his background, role and goals at REHVA. Following that, Andrei Litiu explained activity plan goals, strategic activities (such as the REHVA Journal, newsletters etc).  Furthermore, Andrei Litiu and the chair gave a presentation concerning the flagship events and sponsorship opportunities. They continued by discussing the Brussels Summit, the CLIMA 2025 and the CN AIIR 2024 events. The chair illustrated the benefits of being REHVA supporters, for instance by emphasising the supporters' packages and the promotional service.

Moreover, the chair and Andrei Litiu finished by illustrating the path which has been done so far upon the creation of the Policy and Advocacy Group, opened to both members and supporters. In this regards he highlighted the importance of the IEQ manifesto, the partnership for the EU election, the REHVA manifesto. He also pointed out the ongoing activities on the EPBD side, for instance regarding definitions to be provided for the guidelines, implementation measures etc. He finished by addressing the main policy files that REHVA is following and acting on. He eventually invited everyone to provide their expectations, expertise etc in order to make the entire REHVA family working more effectively and being more goal oriented.

On Friday morning, REHVA held the 68th edition of its General Assembly. The main objective of the General Assembly was to review the year 2023 and focus on the future activities we plan for 2024. During the GA, we had the pleasure to introduce our new Policy and Advocacy Officer, Francesco Robimarga. He will nurture and nourish the relations with the members and the supporters.

Thereafter, the General Assembly accepted unanimously Livio Mazzarella as the President-elect for the position of President as from June 2025 for a mandate of three years unless earlier resignation.

Important announcements were made during the Annual meeting:

·         AIIR Conference will take place in Sinaia, Romania in October 2024.

·         The REHVA Brussels’ Summit will take place in Brussels, Belgium on the 18th and 19th of November 2024 on the topic of “REHVA Pathway to Climate Neutrality”.

·         The REHVA Annual Meeting 2025 will take place in Milan, Italy hosted by AiCARR on 2-3 June 2025.

·         The 15th REHVA World Congress CLIMA 2025 which will follow the REHVA Annual Meeting will take place in Milan, Italy from the 4th of June till the 6th of June 2025 on the topic of “Decarbonized, healthy and energy conscious buildings in future climates”.

·         RoomVent 2026, will take place in Prague, Czech Republic from the 30th of June till the 3rd of July 2026.

Furthermore, two new guidebooks will be published this year:

·         The Guidebook 33, focusing on “Resilient Cooling, stemming from work of IEA EBC Annex 80” has been published in June.

·         The Guidebook 34, focusing on “Instantaneous Wastewater heat recovery” will be published in November, during our REHVA Brussels Summit 2024.

We concluded our Annual Meeting with a goodbye lunch to thank our members, supporters, associate organisations, and network for their participation. We are so glad that the REHVA Family has expanded so much in the past years and we are looking forward to flourishing our relationships in the future!