Introducing Ian Hawke

Kia ora Ian, can you introduce yourself?

I was born in the UK and emigrated with my wife to NZ in 2002. I originally settled in Christchurch and mixed professional and rural lifestyle pursuits, until moving to Auckland around 5 years ago to take up a General Management role with Aquaheat. I’ve spent the last 30 odd years in a variety of roles in the HVACR sector, from apprentice to Director and General Manager.

Why have you decided to become a Trustee?

Having spent virtually all my working life in and around the HVACR sector, I think the Trust provides a great opportunity to help influence and shape the future of the industry, including making positive changes to the impact that synthetic refrigerants have on the environment and raising awareness to support training in the responsible use of refrigerants.

What do you see as the major challenges and opportunities over the next 12 months for the Trust?

We’re on the verge of significant change through the product stewardship scheme and the challenge this brings will be to take the industry on the journey of adopting the intent of the scheme and help improve practices that support this purpose, and of course developing a mechanism to easily and accurately track refrigerant movements. 

An opportunity also exists though, with the support of training organisations, to further elevate the knowledge and skills of those responsible for refrigerants and to set a benchmark for responsible practices.

After joining us for some of our roadshows, what kind of feedback did you hear form the industry about Cool-Safe?

There were many individuals at the Wellington and Auckland Roadshows, who are passionate about the sector and were very keen to learn more from the Strategic Leadership Forum and how this will drive training and help make improvements. The Cool-Safe courier service also seemed to have been well received and it is important that awareness is increased further so others can participate and take advantage of the bounty scheme offered.

Given your background with the sector, how significant is the accreditation of Cool-Safe as the product stewardship scheme?

The product stewardship scheme provides the opportunity for the industry to improve its practices, and to help shift the balance between purely commercial consideration and reducing environmental impacts. 

Cool-Safe provides a mechanism for the scheme to be enacted, with courier services, bounty payments, and ultimately the destruction of synthetics refrigerants, which at the end of the day are all means for the industry to lift the game.  No doubt the journey will not be easy for industry, however the accreditation of Cool-Safe as the product stewardship scheme will provide a single focus and way forward to a level playing field where we can all do the right thing.