Atlanta, Georgia: ASHRAE has announced reaching highest membership in 14 years, with 56,105 individual members, until 2016. According to the announcement, the Society currently has 181 chapters, 41 sections and 234 student branches around the globe, with members in 130 countries. Seventy-nine per cent of its total membership is based in the United States and Canada, while 21% is from other countries, an increase from 18% from two years ago, the announcement added.

“This growth reflects ASHRAE’s influence on building standards and best practices around the world,” said Timothy Wentz, ASHRAE President. “Our members recognise that the Society increasingly provides opportunities to network with the global built environment’s best and brightest.”

The announcement informed that ASHRAE’s Region-at-Large, which encompasses the Middle East, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Africa and Europe, had the largest percent gain in membership in the Society year of 2015-16.

With more than 130 published standards and guidelines at present, the Society claimed that it is one of the only six standards-developing organisations in the United States that can self-certify that its standards have followed American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) standards development procedures.

The Society said that it produces hundreds of publications, including the ASHRAE Handbook, and a peer-reviewed monthly ASHRAE Journal, in addition to offering many courses, including six certification programmes, through the ASHRAE Learning Institute.

“From expansion into residential markets to providing resources for the quickly changing refrigerant industry, ASHRAE will continue to use the expertise of its members to further the technology of tomorrow,” Wentz said, adding, “At the same time, ASHRAE is partnering with other organisations dedicated to working toward a more sustainable environment, creating a worldwide best-practices databank of innovative and successful technologies that will serve the built environment community.”