Making Life Better, an AHRI Podcast

Like we told you in our State Summit episode, the spring months are often some of the busiest for our government affairs team! Our signature advocacy event – the Policy Symposium – is only a few weeks away.Every year, this meeting happens in the heart of Washington, DC and serves as an opportunity for all of our member companies to connect directly with congressional offices and key regulators. The first day focuses on education, with panels from key legislative and regulatory players and remarks from keynote speakers at breakfast and lunch. On the second day – AHRI heads to Capitol Hill en masse for dozens of visits with members of Congress and their staff.There are a lot of moving parts to this event, and I’m excited to introduce you to several members of our policy team who help to bring them all together!Register for the Policy Symposium here.The Capitol Hill visit training webinar recording is available on the members-only dashboard, under the Government Affairs/Advocacy dropdown menu: https://www.ahrinet.org/user/member-dashboard

AHRI’s Certification program has been around for almost 90 years. Over the decades, it has expanded to include more products and to offer more services – like regulation compliance verification in the U.S. and around the world.HVACR and water heating products are complex, and one of the most valuable things AHRI Certification offers is performance assurance, not only to homeowners, but to consulting engineers and architects.In the latest episode of the Making Life Better podcast, AHRI Senior Vice President of Global Services Henry Hwong, joins host Regan Spencer to discuss how AHRI provides that assurance as products and systems evolve to serve more markets and become more efficient.Learn more about AHRI Certification: https://www.ahrinet.org/certificationVisit the AHRI Certified Directory of Certified Product Performance: https://ahridirectory.org

At AHRI, the spring months are often some of the busiest for our government affairs team. Our two signature advocacy events – the State Summit and the Policy Symposium – take place in April and May.In this month’s episode, we’re unpacking the AHRI State Summit, which – you guessed it – focuses on state-level advocacy efforts. It ping pongs between two of the most ambitious state legislatures in the country - New York on the East Coast and California on the West Coast. It’s a two-day agenda - with one day focusing on panel sessions that address issues specific to the state and the second day spent traveling up to the state capitol for meetings with state legislators and their staff.While the State Summit is one of our smaller events, it serves as a valuable opportunity to connect directly with the state lawmakers and regulators that are responsible for introducing, voting on, and implementing measures that can have huge impacts on the way our industry does business.This year, AHRI staff and members will be traveling to Sacramento, California in near-record numbers to share our industry’s priorities in the state! I’m excited to introduce you to several members of our policy and regulatory teams to share what goes into this event and why it’s so important.Resources from this episode:AHRI State Summit: https://www.ahrinet.org/2026-ahri-state-summitAHRI Policy Symposium: https://www.ahrinet.org/2026-policy-symposium General advocacy web page: https://www.ahrinet.org/advocacy 

This month we’re talking about one of AHRI’s biggest policy priorities: Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) Modernization. It’s hard to explain just how important this piece of policy is to our industry, and to American manufacturing as a whole. But for a lot of people, EPCA is the most important statute they’ve never heard of.We have AHRI’s Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Samantha Slater to help de-mystify EPCA and explain the practical ways that it could be amended to serve American manufacturing and consumers better for the next 50 years.Resources from this episode:Policy SymposiumState SummitLobbying 101 webinar sign upLobbying 101 webinar archive  (members only, navigate to the "Meetings and Events" dropdown menu)

This month – we’re turning our attention to one of AHRI’s newest initiatives. We are in the process of launching the first North American environmental product declarations program that specializes in the HVACR and water heating industry. It’s called the AHRI Certified EPD Program, nicknamed the ACE Program – and it’s designed to offer thorough, transparent, and third-party verified environmental information on HVACR and water heating equipment.Resources from this episode:EPD web page: https://www.ahrinet.org/ahri-certified-epd-program-ace Subscribe to the ACE Program mailing list: https://ahrinet.informz.net/AHRINET/pages/AHRI_Certified_EPD_Program_Subscription_Form For further information or to ask any questions, contact [email protected]

In this episode, we are focusing on the upcoming AHR Expo, which is February 2-4 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Make sure you stop by booth C-23-02 to meet with AHRI staff! We are well represented this year, so you will have the opportunity to meet with engineers, regulatory compliance staff, and members of our global services team.On top of our booth presence, we are also offering five educational sessions on some of the most pressing industry topics. View all our educational sessions at AHR Expo here: https://www.ahrinet.org/news-events/2026-ahr-expoMore on the AHRI Certified EPD Program: https://www.ahrinet.org/ahri-certified-epd-program-aceMore from North American Technician Excellence (NATE): https://natex.org

We’re excited to announce the launch of Making Life Better: An AHRI Podcast. AHRI is the trade association representing manufacturers of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, commercial refrigeration, and water heating equipment. We’ll keep you informed about our upcoming events, important policy issues affecting the industry, updates to our globally recognized, industry respected certification program, and we’ll even share some fun human interest stories and history related to the world of HVACR.You can expect new episodes to be released monthly. Our first will be available in late January ahead of the AHR Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.