ASHRAE.org, the Web site of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), has earned an award of excellence from the Web Marketing Association.

The association's Standard of Excellence WebAward recognizes the best Web sites in a variety of industry categories. Past Standard of Excellence sites include The American Water Works Association, ABC News, and Abercrombie and Fitch.

Judges noted that ASHRAE.org is "easy to navigate and easy to find your contact information." Entries are judged on design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copywriting and ease of use.

The site exceeds 6,000 unique visits per day and hosts 8,000 documents. ASHRAE.org was launched in 1995 to deliver information to the HVAC/R industry, including authoritative, in-depth technical information, information on Society activities,
updates on emerging trends in new technologies, and information on HVAC/R products, companies and organizations.

'ASHRAE.org is designed to make it easy for visitors to find the information they need in order to help fulfill their obligation to their clients and customers as well as to the Society,' David McAlister, ASHRAE's manager of electronic communications, said. 'For Internet professionals to judge our site a Standard of Excellence in Web design is encouraging. But the usability and friendliness of a site depends on member feedback and constant study of industry best practices. We see this award as confirmation that we're on the right path.'

Services of the site include: discussion boards to enable practitioners to share expertise and opinions in a variety of technical areas, online meetings for committees, an interactive membership application form, a career services center where members can post resumes and search for jobs, and Enewsletters, which provide weekly industry update to subscribers, and Society Connections, which provides discussion forums on technical issues and Society news.