Changing the Game: Retrofitting for Resilience

2026–2027 Society Theme of ASHRAE President Sarah E. Maston

As the built environment faces a rapidly changing world, the need to rethink how buildings are designed, operated, and renewed has never been more important. For the 2026–2027 Society Year, ASHRAE President Sarah E. Maston calls on the industry to embrace a forward-looking approach through the theme “Changing the Game: Retrofitting for Resilience.”

The theme recognizes that creating a resilient built environment does not always mean starting from the ground up. Across communities around the world, countless existing buildings represent an opportunity to improve performance, strengthen adaptability, and extend service life. Through thoughtful retrofitting, these buildings can respond to evolving environmental conditions, technological advancements, energy demands, and the changing needs of their occupants.

Retrofitting as a Path to Resilience

Retrofitting goes beyond simply replacing outdated equipment or improving individual building systems. It presents an opportunity to take a holistic look at how buildings perform and how they can continue to serve their occupants in an uncertain future.

From upgrading HVAC systems and improving energy efficiency to integrating smart controls, enhancing indoor environmental quality, and preparing buildings for extreme weather and changing operating conditions, retrofit strategies can transform existing facilities into more efficient, adaptable, and resilient spaces.

For the HVAC&R community, this challenge presents both a responsibility and an opportunity. Engineers and building professionals play a critical role in identifying practical interventions that balance energy performance, occupant comfort, system reliability, cost, and long-term resilience.

Changing the Game in the Philippines

In the Philippines, the importance of resilient buildings is particularly significant. Buildings operate in an environment shaped by tropical conditions, extreme heat, typhoons, flooding, evolving energy demands, and increasing expectations for efficiency and occupant well-being.

Many of the country's existing buildings were designed under conditions and standards that differ from today's challenges. Retrofitting provides a pathway to address these gaps while preserving valuable existing infrastructure.

This calls for collaboration across the built environment: from engineers and architects to contractors, facility managers, owners, manufacturers, policymakers, and other industry stakeholders. By working together, the industry can develop retrofit solutions that are technically sound, economically viable, and responsive to local conditions.

From Existing Buildings to Future-Ready Spaces

“Changing the Game: Retrofitting for Resilience” encourages the industry to look at existing buildings not as limitations, but as opportunities.

Every retrofit can be a step toward reducing energy consumption, improving system performance, strengthening resilience, and creating healthier indoor environments. More importantly, successful retrofits can demonstrate how the buildings we already have can be adapted to meet the demands of the future.

As ASHRAE continues to advance heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration, and building performance, the 2026–2027 Society Theme challenges its members and the broader industry to think beyond conventional solutions and embrace innovation where it matters most.

Changing the game means looking at what already exists, understanding what the future demands, and taking action today to build greater resilience for tomorrow.

Through “Changing the Game: Retrofitting for Resilience,” ASHRAE Philippines joins the global ASHRAE community in advancing a more resilient, sustainable, and future-ready built environment: one retrofit at a time.

Dear Fellow Members, Colleagues, and Friends,

It is with deep gratitude and a sense of responsibility that I accept the privilege of serving as your President for the 2026–2027 Society Year. My thanks go to our past presidents and Board of Governors, whose stewardship built the chapter we inherit today, and to every member, volunteer, sponsor, and partner who gives this chapter its life.

ASHRAE Society President Sarah E. Maston calls us this year to “Changing the Game: Retrofitting for Resilience” — a reminder that the greatest opportunity in the built environment lies in the buildings we already have. For the Philippines, where climate risk is not an abstraction but an annual reality, that call could not be more timely. Our chapter will answer it through six pillars.

We begin with membership and our Young Engineers in ASHRAE. A chapter is only as strong as the people who show up for it, so we will grow our roster deliberately, engage those already with us more meaningfully, and invest in developing the next generation of leaders — because YEA is not merely our future, it is our present.

Second, we commit to technical excellence. Through our bootcamp, technical series, roundtables, and seminars, we will keep raising the standard of practice among Filipino engineers — pairing the rigor of ASHRAE standards with the realities of our tropical climate, our codes, and our project conditions. Competence is the most durable service we can offer our members and the public alike.

Third, we will deepen our government engagement, moving from relationship building to meaningful partnership. Our aim is substantive collaboration on codes, standards, efficiency policy, and capacity building, where the chapter is sought out as a trusted technical resource rather than merely a familiar name.

Fourth, we will pursue financial stability by creating shared value. A well-resourced chapter is a chapter that can deliver. We will steward our funds transparently and build sponsor relationships in which our partners gain genuine visibility, access, and technical exchange — so that supporting ASHRAE Philippines is an investment with returns, not an act of charity.

Fifth, we will strengthen our regional and global visibility. Filipino engineering talent deserves a wider audience. We will show up and participate at Region 13 activities and Society events, contribute to committees and technical work beyond our shores, and pursue recognition that reflects the real quality of what our members do every day.

Sixth, and underpinning all of it, we will practice governance as leadership with continuity. We will document our processes, strengthen succession and turnover, mentor incoming officers early, and make decisions that serve the chapter long after this term ends.

These six pillars are commitments, not slogans — and they will only hold if we carry them together. I invite every member to take part: attend a session, join a committee, mentor a student, sponsor an activity, or simply bring a colleague into the fold. Whatever your capacity, there is a place for you in this year’s work.

Let us change the game together.

Sincerely,

MARK LESTER SALVADOR
President, ASHRAE Philippines Chapter
2026–2027 Society Year