ACR Journal

CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai acrjournal.uk 11 NEWS was awarded to Dr Dermot Cotter of Star Refrigeration for his paper Carbon Dioxide Hazard Assessments and Safety System Requirements. The winner of this award is made by vote of IOR members. You can read the paper and see the recording of the presentation on the IOR website Both Alexander Cohr Pachai and Henrique Lagoeiro have been invited to give talks to IOR members in the next papers programme to share their work in more detail with the RACHP Community. To find out more about the awards that the IOR makes each year and how to enter for next year, visit https://bit.ly/IORAwards President puts focus on diversity drive IOR president Graeme Fox used his speech to focus on past, current and future work to promote inclusion and diversity in the RACHP industry, whilst addressing its skill shortage challenges. The IOR says it has been working to attract a more diverse workforce to the sector and the speech showcased initiatives such as the Fantastic Fridges website. An online STEM resource for KS2, KS3 and KS4 children, the website will soon be expanded to include a section for 16- to 18-year-olds. Graeme Fox commented on the great work of IOR members who are also part of the STEM ambassadors’ scheme and how the IOR will further support them with new IOR STEM Ambassador kit bags. The recent partnership between STEMAZING and the IOR was also mentioned - thanks to the IOR president’s fund, three female members will be able to attend the STEMAZING Training Academy providing them with the resources to present exciting STEM sessions to school children. The above campaigns, along with other long-term initiatives such as the IOR’s Women in RACHP Network, are making progress in improving awareness of diversity in the industry but much remains to be done as it is estimated that only 17/18% of the RACHP workforce is female and just 4% is from an ethnic minority. The president reminded guests and members that there is also much to gain in promoting inclusivity and diversity. He said: “A more diverse workforce in terms of gender, ethnicity or a more neuro-diverse one is more dynamic, has di erent viewpoints and perspectives from which to attempt to find solutions to problems as they might occur – so we do need to collectively work on improving our performance here.” This led to the final part of his speech where he announced the participation of the IOR in the first-ever pan-industry gathering to address diversity and inclusivity with bigger-picture collective thinking. Organisations including BESA, FETA, CIBSE, the Women’s Engineering Society, the Association of Black and Ethnic Minority Engineers (ABFE-UK), ASHRAE and the Black Professionals In Construction Network will take part with the aim to tackle this issue which has been a long-term problem for the engineering sector. Henrique Lagoeiro Dermot Cotter Graeme Fox