Exploring Generation Z's unique relationship with HVAC&R and consumer ownership.

I’m just returning home from a really thought-provoking two days spent in Berlin at a conference that explored the relationship between the traditional heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration industries and the people who are sometimes known as “Generation Z.” This loosely refers to people born after 1995 and can be defined as people who can’t remember when the Internet was not “always on.”

Generation Z is the latest in a line of demographic tags applied to groups according to the prevailing influences in their coming-of-age. Before the current cohort it was the Millennials (born between 1980 and 1995) who were regularly contrasted with their predecessors, Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980). Gen Xers were initially said to be afflicted by a sense of entitlement and a lack of work ethic, although more recently they have been credited with a high level of entrepreneurship and the foundation of huge tech companies. Millennials were the first generation to really grow up with the products of those companies and were said to prefer electronic interaction to actual contact with people. They are supposedly less rooted than older generations, more likely to move from job to job, or to hold several simultaneously.

I, apparently, belong to Generation Jones (1955 – 1965). We followed the baby boomers (1940 – 55) without experiencing the first flush of radical change in the late 1950s and ‘60s, but before Gen X. We supposedly are the least likely to trust politicians and the political system, most likely to feel under-rewarded and most likely to complain about things.

I heard several surprising comments at the conference, and it left me in two minds about the whole generational cohorts trope. On one hand, as one older delegate said, it was interesting to hear young people who participated showing the same energy, passion for the environment, raw enthusiasm and optimism that we showed 30 years ago. Where did it all go? Is this the result of belonging to a certain era, or is it just an age thing that will pass with time? On the other hand, representatives of Generation Z did seem different. They transacted a remarkably high proportion of their lives online, and didn’t seem to feel the need to own things, including long-term commitments like houses or cars.

One member of Generation Z said he was amazed to hear that owning a fridge was viewed by the older generation as a status symbol. It reminded me of an elderly neighbor of mine who had been a domestic refrigerator salesman in the 1930s. When he made his first sale, the young couple purchasing the unit invited him to dinner the following week so they could show off this technological marvel to their friends and family. Generation Z prefers to be consumers rather than owners, using a facility (car, office space, music library) only when they need it rather than being tied to it all the time. This is starting to have an impact on HVAC&R, with domestic heating and cooling systems being seen as a short-term rental option even though they are typically built into the fabric of the house. Now the fridge is becoming a daily consumable: owned, operated and maintained by someone else and replaced whenever the mood strikes.

As a “Jones,” this seemed very wasteful and careless to me. If they try to use a rented device for heating their home, what happens in the first cold snap when everybody wants to rent at the same time? If a fridge is swapped regularly by the lessee to keep it up to date, what happens to all the old, pre-used ones? If my fridge doesn’t work without an Internet connection, what happens when the net is down?