Congratulations to Mike Nankivell, ACRIB FGas Chair, on award of OBE

ACRIB, the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Board, added its congratulations to Mike Nankivell on the announcement that he would be awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List as “Chair, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Industry Board Fgas Implementation Group. For services to the UK Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Industry”. 

ACRIB Chair Mike Creamer said “I am delighted to see the contribution of one of our most respected volunteers recognised in this way. It is gratifying to know that the very significant contribution that our RACHP industry has been making in addressing national and international environmental goals, is appreciated.” ACRIB is an umbrella organisation governed by eight trade associations and professional bodies, that works to advise government and inform industry on technical, environmental, legislative and education initiatives.  Mike Nankivell was responsible for co-ordinating much of the UK industry response to early Fgas regulation consultations and for helping to prepare numerous guidance notes and press articles to raise awareness of the new obligations the regulations brought in.

Commenting on being awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2021, Mike said."This is a completely unexpected honour and I am extremely proud to have been recommended for this award. 

In my long career in the HVRACHP sector and then into retirement, I have been pleased to spend a good many years in voluntary support of our industry associations and institutions. It must be acknowledged that this was originally made possible, thanks to the enthusiastic support and encouragement of my bosses of the time - Bruce Wright at Carrier and later, Neil Afram at Space Air.  Over the years I have been privileged to chair HEVAC, the HPA and the FETA Board as well as various sub-groups, I have also been a Director of ACRIB and a Trustee of the IOR.  It was with great pleasure that I took up the request to chair the new ACRIB FGas Implementation Group in 2005. At that time, the European Commissioning was consulting on the proposed detail of the F Gas Regulation. It was anticipated that, in addition to responding to the consultation, the Group, would focus on assisting with the national implementation and dissemination of the Regulation, and would perhaps only need to meet for two or three years. It soon became clear that the Group's input would also be helpful in subsequent evaluation of and revisions to the Regulation. 

The ACRIB F Gas Implementation Group, has been a sector-leading participant in stakeholder meetings, as industry advisors to DEFRA and the Environment Agency, in the development of the mandatory training requirements and in the dissemination of the (pre and post BREXIT) Regulation requirements to the RACHP sector.  The Group is still active to this day, although in more recent years it has been incorporated into the ACRIB Technical committee. 

As chair, my main role was to assemble industry expertise appropriate to specific elements of the Regulation, as and when those elements were priorities for action, as such the group has had an ever-evolving membership. It has also been my privilege to personally represent the Fgas Implementation group at numerous confex events, meetings with DEFRA, the Environment Agency and at a Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee.

The fact that I continued as chair beyond retirement is a measure of the importance I attached to the role of the Fgas Implementation Group - but I never expected any accolades, let alone an OBE in The Queen’s Birthday Honours List!”

Mike has almost 50 years experience in the HVACR Industry. An engineer turned marketer, until entering semi-retirement in 2015 Mike was Marketing and Business Development Director of a leading independent Daikin air conditioning and heat pump distributor for 16 years and continues to provide support to various industry groups and committees as a volunteer.