The June-July 2024 edition of Ecolibrium was my 157th edition and last one at the helm.

It’s said that good things come to those who wait. Certainly, that was the case with the prize gig of editing Ecolibrium.

I’d already logged a decade as a sportswriter and other spells working on business magazines, in government communications departments and as a film correspondent when I encountered the advertisement to edit AIRAH’s official journal.

The job ad was a clarion call for anyone concerned about climate change and who was interested in sustainable design – a brilliant piece of optimistic copywriting, I’m sure you’d agree.

But the more I looked, the more I was intrigued, and as anyone reading this journal would implicitly understand, the better I grasped that fundamental truth: air conditioning is intimately connected with sustainability.

There was definitely potential to help celebrate HVAC&R. In fact, that was the subject of the very first editorial I wrote in the November 2008 edition, with the Large Hadron Collider on the cover. I noted how this industry was not unlike air, the substance at the centre of it: essential but invisible.

It’s been enormously satisfying to celebrate a critical industry – several industries, you might say. That includes the function to go with form in buildings, and the technology essential for our health, productivity and comfort.

Now, 16 years and 157 editions of Ecolibrium later, I have reason to recall something else that is said about all good things: that they come to an end.

My time editing AIRAH’s official journal has concluded. It’s been a privilege and a pleasure to helm a publication that was first established in 1947, and to try to carry on a legacy of excellence.

Editing a magazine is not a task done in isolation of course, so that means there are many people to thank for their assistance along the way.

Thanks to my colleagues in Communications and Publishing: Neil, Carly, Glenn, Judy, John, Rachel, Laura A, Laura T, Boon, Mark and Nick.

Deep thanks to Sean McGowan, our trusted regular correspondent.

Thanks also to the CEOs who kept the lights on: Phil, Tony and Sami, and the Boards behind them.

Much appreciation to the designers, Frank (RIP), and Stephen, and our friends at Printgraphics.

Rob Lord, M.AIRAH, and Clive Broadbent, L.AIRAH, where would Ecolibrium be without your judicious peer reviews? Thank you, chaps.

And thanks to you, dear readers, the ones who flick through and those dedicated souls who linger a bit longer. Thanks for your suggestions and contributions, and your interest.

Check out this month’s cover story (“Deep impact”, p.60) for an example of AIRAH member enthusiasm for contributing content (although I’ve never been entirely comfortable with that word – it seems so reductive).

There are lots of highlights from the projects, buildings and technologies encountered, and our chance to tell their story, but in the end it’s the people that I’ll remember most.

I’m confident that this final issue from me will provide quality reading, and quite a bit of it.