ASHRAE has announced that it is currently in the process of translating its standards into Arabic. Dr Ahmed Alaa Eldin Mohamed, ASHRAE’s Assistant Regional Chair, shared the news exclusively with Climate Control Middle East, adding that the initiative was spearheaded by Osama Khayata, Vice Chair – Government Grassroots Advocacy Committee (GGAC) at the ASHRAE Falcon Chapter, following a survey he conducted to ascertain demand for the standards to be available in Arabic, among stakeholders in the Middle East region. Khayata said, “I found that many of my Arabic colleagues face some problems understanding the standards in English.” This prompted him to suggest a translation of ASHRAE’s most important standards, which was well received by the Society. “We started translating ASHRAE Standard 62.1 for ventilation,” he said, “which is also a code in Dubai. Approximately we [have] finished about 80% of this standard.”

Khayata said the first standard will be submitted by November and estimated that it will be released at the beginning of 2018. “When we finish, then we will start [translating] another standard, like ASHRAE 55, ASHRAE 90.1. I hope that in 2018, we will be able to finish three standards.”

In addition to Dr Mohamed and Khayata, the team facilitating the translation includes Khaled Al Katheeri, Vice Chair – GGAC and Azmi Aboul-Hoda, Publicity Chair and CTTC (Chapter Technology Transfer Committee) Vice Chair.

Al Katheeri stressed that the translation will play a crucial role in ASHRAE’s move to promote a more sustainable built-environment in the region. “There are already ASHRAE standards referenced in local codes in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, in particular,” he said, “and having this will really help the local [community] to include even more standards from ASHRAE.”

Further touching on public sector engagement, Al Katheeri said that the GGAC is looking at collaborations with government entities to explain the standards and provide guidance and insight on their applications, as well as advise on any revisions as the standards are periodically updated.

Aboul-Hoda spoke on the difficulty of translating technical subject matters against the backdrop of ASRAE’s global vision. “In the UAE and many countries’ around the Arab world, we use English in our business communication,” he said. “So, finding the correct term of these words in Arabic is one of the challenges we are facing, and we are continuing to face, until we finish this task.” Aboul-Hoda emphasised that with Arabic considered the fifth most popular language in the world, the translation effort supported by ASHRAE reflects its vision to become more global, especially following the recent opening of the global training centre in Dubai, which is the first outside the United States.

Dr. Mohamed made a case for the need for Arabic translation in the region, especially in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria, saying it would help a lot in reinforcing ASHRAE standards to all policy makers in the Arab countries.