Berlin, Germany, 26 September 2017: Accelerate Europe magazine announced the winners of its first annual awards programme, which recognises excellence in advancing natural refrigerant adoption in Europe, at an evening ceremony today at the ATMOsphere Europe conference, taking place this week in Berlin, Germany.

The magazine and conference are both produced by shecco, a global market accelerator for natural refrigerant systems and worldwide publisher of natural refrigerant news.

Accelerate Europe is the first news magazine written for and about the most progressive business leaders working with climate-friendly natural refrigerants in Europe. ATMOsphere Europe is shecco’s annual conference on natural refrigerant systems development in Europe.

The winners in the best-in-sector award categories are the Carrefour Group (food retail), Nestlé (light commercial) and the Staay Food Group (industrial). The winner of the Innovation of the Year award is Viessmann for its Click4Food propane and isobutane-based cooling system.

The winner of the Person of the Year award is Menno van der Hoff, head of R&D and HVAC manager at Unichemie. Van der Hoff played a key role in developing the Triple Aqua, an energy-efficient heat pump employing propaene, a blend of hydrocarbons.

“Carrefour, Nestlé and the Staay Food Group have each pushed the boundaries of natural refrigerant system adoption in their respective sectors, while Viessmann is innovating in food retail,” said Andrew Williams, editor of Accelerate Europe.

“Menno van der Hoff has played an inspirational role in raising the profile of natural refrigerants in Europe and his enthusiasm for pushing the boundaries of technology is infectious,” Williams added.

Accelerate Europe is viewable online at no charge at http://accelerateeu.com. Print copies are distributed at major European trade shows serving the HVAC&R (heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration) industries, and mailed to key end users in food retail, cold storage, food processing and other sectors, as well as to influential policymakers.