Jenna Prasad: I’m a sustainability engineer for Ambient, and I handle our internal and external sustainability goals. So that means making sure that we are meeting and exceeding our internal carbon rejection plans, making sure that we’re helping our clients and customers hit their sustainability targets, and making sure that we are promoting the most energy efficient, effective products in that sphere. I help onboard new companies into our sustainability program, making sure that we’re supporting everyone internally and externally, even from a regulatory standpoint.

How can young professionals best prepare for a career in sustainability in this field in particular?

So, sustainability in the sphere of construction, engineering, even HVAC, is an interesting space to be in because the landscape is constantly evolving.

We see huge jumps forward. We see major setbacks all the time. We see regulations get put into place, get pushed out, things like that. So, I think what’s most important when you’re going into this field when you’re looking at sustainability from a construction standpoint, is to make sure that you are constantly being aware of what is going on in the industry and government and in sustainability as a whole. Understanding what federal, state, and local regulations are coming at this time.

A little bit of federal deregulation, but on the same front, we’re seeing a lot of states move forward with their initiatives and from a local level like we’re seeing in New York, Boston, Washington DC and I think on the other side, when you’re in our sphere in construction, you need to make sure that you have an understanding of the energy efficient products that you’re able to share with your customers and to say this is a product that’s going to help you meet your sustainability goals. It’s going to help you exceed it. It’s going to be able to balance an upfront cost with cost savings later on.

And I find it very beneficial not only to understand which products are more energy efficient, but also understand why the technicalities behind the equipment that you know is being used every day in these buildings to understand why is this more energy efficient than something else?

Understanding the real root of what makes it a better product to fit the requirements of the building.

Reducing Costs by Reducing Emissions | Sustainability in HVAC

What would you say are the biggest challenges in making HVAC systems more energy efficient in general?

So, there are a few challenges. I think some of the biggest are balancing a lot of the regulations, managing building codes in certain areas.

For example, we’re seeing a refrigerant transition phase where we’re moving into refrigerant that has less of a global warming impact, which is fantastic. But it’s not necessarily a drop in solution for most products, especially in specific regions. For example, New York and their high-rise buildings, there’s not necessarily a drop in solution.

So that becomes somewhat difficult to manage that sort of transition, especially in timelines that you’re supposed to be able to integrate those types of products in. There’s also the upfront cost component of there where you really want to be balancing the cost of the equipment with the energy efficiency and the effectiveness of the product.

So, you want to make sure depending on your customer could have all sorts of budgetary constraints, energy efficiency goals, sustainability goals as a whole.

What would you say are the steps that businesses can take to ensure compliance with some of these sustainability standards?

First, it is definitely to be aware of the federal, state, and local regulations at all times.

There are a lot of compliance fees, and these non-compliance fines can be very costly, especially when they don’t seem that they’re going to be a lot, and then they add up overtime and then you’re looking at. Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines over the course of a year or two years if you’re not meeting those energy efficiency requirements.

I think it’s also really important to just have people in your corner who are knowledgeable about this if you are not, and making sure that you can rely on the right people, which is why it’s so great that Ambient and their teams are the people who do have this knowledge and are on the ground every day, making sure that our customers are going to meet and exceed these regulatory compliance mandates to make sure that we’re getting ahead of that. Not just meeting it but staying ahead.

What would you say are the most sustainable HVAC products that you can buy today that are out there?

There’s always going to be a custom solution that’s going to best fit your building. So, what might work for you might not work for another building, especially depending on the cost.

But when we’re looking at tech as a whole, we’ve seen a lot of really great advancements recently. As I was saying before, with the refrigerant transition, we’re seeing most equipment that uses refrigerant transition to using our R-454B, R32, and a variety of other refrigerants that have a lower global warming potential, which means they’re going to do less damage overall, which is fantastic.

We’re also seeing a lot of natural refrigerants come into play. A big one being CO2 carbon dioxide as well as ammonia, and a couple others in that sphere. And those natural refrigerants have a much lower global warming potential, so that’s been really successful recently. And we’re also just seeing all manufacturers being able to advance their products just in terms of using less power, making advancements to their pumps, their motors, their drives, making progress on existing components, which is a big thing and then we’re also just seeing a higher standard when it comes to startup maintenance, commissioning services, and all that is contributing to creating everything to be more energy efficient.

So, it’s a lot of working parts that come together to create a more sustainable product for a more sustainable building

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