Global megatrends are pushing climate issues to the forefront of the world's concerns. The world is becoming warmer and more urbanized; we are generating unsustainable levels of greenhouse gas emissions; and natural resource scarcity is pressuring food supplies, health and wellness, and general infrastructure. As people become more aware of the need for sustainable development for a healthier planet, nearly every industry is trying its best to contribute to a better future. Some leading companies across the world, such as global climate innovator Trane Technologies, are pushing boundaries, breaking down barriers and developing cutting-edge climate solutions to accelerate the world's progress in solving global sustainability challenges.

Trane Technologies, through its strategic brands Trane® and Thermo King®, brings environmentally responsible, efficient and sustainable heating and cooling solutions to buildings, homes and transportation. With approximately 15% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions related to heating and cooling buildings and homes, and another 10% from food lost in transport or never consumed, the company is uniquely positioned to lead a movement to tackle climate change and reduce the rate of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration. Company leaders such as Kandice Cohen are among those at the forefront creating positive change.

Pioneering New Industry Paradigms to Advance the Sustainability Frontier

Kandice Cohen is Director of Electrification of Heat for the Commercial HVAC Americas business at Trane Technologies. She has been a thought leader and changemaker in the sustainability space since beginning her career in 2005. She has played a major role in the advancement of LED lighting technology, specifically driving significant market penetration and adoption of connected lighting systems. Working across both the HVAC and lighting industries, her innovative thinking has helped shift the market toward more efficient, integrated technology. Her work is breaking down silos within building systems to help create the connected building of the future, today. Kandice refuses to accept the status quo and pushes to develop new technology, ideas and business models to address the world's absurdities.

In her current role, Kandice is focused on advancing the building industry's carbon reduction path through sustainability, decarbonization and electrification of heat for Trane's Commercial HVAC business in the Americas. Energy conservation, transition to low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants, and the electrification of the world's heating infrastructure are all critical to preventing further climate change and protecting the planet to sustain the generations of life to come. Kandice is known for her proven track record developing technology that meets industry challenges such as these.

Shifting Mindsets, Transforming Heating Infrastructure

In the quest toward a more sustainable planet, energy efficiency has been the benchmark for many decades. Energy efficiency, however, represents just one component of decarbonization.

There are four key factors driving decarbonization: increased energy efficiency, refrigerant management, electrification, and clean energy generation.

Over time, significant regulatory change has driven major improvements in energy efficiency and refrigerant management. While there are opportunities to further hone these areas, electrification and clean energy generation represent the next great improvement frontier. Reducing reliance on burning fossil fuels is essential to prevent climate change from reaching the critical point from which it cannot return.

Kandice's long-standing connectivity to the energy market is helping to serve as a catalyst to accelerate the focus from energy efficiency to decarbonization. This work will help broaden thinking about energy conservation, create literacy in the sustainability market around decarbonization or reducing carbon emissions, and measure the success of projects by focusing on reducing CO².

Decarbonization through energy efficiency, low-GWP refrigerants in HVAC, the electrification of heat, and clean energy are building blocks to solving the climate crisis. Knowing that the regulatory environment is continuing to drive energy efficiency and refrigerant management improvements, Kandice is leading change on the electrification front while collaborating with those addressing clean energy generation. She is working with organizations, industry partners and stakeholders across the sustainability and decarbonization spaces and leveraging collective intelligence to move the needle with new solutions that help address the climate emergency.

Revolutionizing Technology

Kandice is intent on shifting the heating infrastructure market beyond the burning of fossil fuels to both hybrid and fully electric heating, a transformation that requires innovative technology, fresh business models, new processes, and more.

While the industry has already driven tremendous increase in energy efficiency and refrigeration management, electrification represents a bold new frontier. The transportation sector provides a successful model that can leveraged for the building industry. The progressive transformation from gas combustion vehicles to hybrid and ultimately to fully electric offers inspirational lessons. As the building industry transition is still in its infancy, its untapped nature opens the door to exciting opportunities. With the heating infrastructure of the built environment accounting for 6 percent of global greenhouse gasses, addressing this challenge could generate ground-breaking progress towards resolving climate change.

Today, Trane's expansive portfolio of thermal systems in North America includes key electric heating solutions such as variable refrigerant flow and light commercial unitary rooftop/split system heat pumps, air source heat pump chillers, and water- and air-cooled chillers with heat recovery.

Kandice and her colleagues are working across the Trane Technologies portfolio to broaden system capabilities to address customers' cold-climate electric heating needs. While this work begins with technology development, its success relies on market education and adoption.

To successfully transform the market, Kandice is working with those addressing current energy demand constraints to ensure we have enough reliable electricity supply. This includes converting the electric grid to clean and renewable energy generation and enhancing grid stability.

Educating the Market  

Market education is crucial to a successful electric heating revolution. To accomplish this, Kandice is elevating market fluency around decarbonization. Her efforts are educating stakeholders on "what's in it for them" and providing actionable execution plans that outline their roles in this transformation. She also is assembling a collaborative network of stakeholders to work together furthering the shared goal of carbon emissions reduction.

Communicating and Executing CO² Mitigation Strategies for Our Global Community

One of Kandice's great strengths is her ability to drive change by simplifying a complex topic and communicating it in a compelling way that inspires people to engage and take action. She is doing just that when it comes to the overall market adoption of electrified heat. She is bringing key stakeholders together to activate a CO² emissions reduction strategy. Kandice's focus on equitable consensus represents the future paradigm of successful problem solving both for climate improvement and for our global community.

A Collaborative Approach to Improving Our Planet's Health 

Kandice is working with sustainability- and decarbonization-focused organizations and industry partners to create a network of transformative thought leaders. They are collaborating to leverage their collective intelligence and dramatically shift the market to help solve the complex and nuanced challenges our planet faces today.

New ways of thinking are required to accelerate the changes needed to create a habitable environment for future generations. A crisis as critical as the health of our planet demands strong, visionary leaders who can create consensus and drive a groundswell of change. Trane Technologies leaders such as Kandice, as well as those at other organizations, are paving the way.

Bundling efficiency improvements and refrigerant management efforts with the electrification of heat can lead to real impact regarding the climate crisis. Project Drawdown reports that energy efficiency, combined with refrigerant management and electrification offers an opportunity to reduce as much as 141.2 Gigatons of CO². Trane Technologies alone has committed to reducing its environmental impact by 1 Gigaton.

Great challenges open the door to great solutions, and decarbonization and electrification are among the pathways to a more sustainable future for planet earth. We will achieve progress faster through the efforts of bold companies like Trane Technologies – and bold leaders like Kandice who dare to be different and challenge the status quo for a better tomorrow.