The Barcelona Provincial Council leads the European project EURONET 50/50.

It aims to promote energy efficiency in schools through raising awareness and behaviour changes

Sostenible.cat
08-02-2010

Once a pupil learns how to save energy, he will do it for life. With this background idea, and aware that children are the real drivers of change, the Barcelona Provincial Council is leading the European project EURONET 50/50, which aims to promote energy efficiency in schools through raising awareness and behaviour changes. A project, in the words of the coordinator of the area of Environment, Ferran Vallespinós "very innovative, value added, which contributes to combat climate change", because if schools reduce their energy consumption they will also be reducing their CO2 emissions to the atmosphere.

The project involves nine partners from nine European countries (Spain, Germany, Italy, Finland, Hungary Portugal, Poland, Greece and Slovenia) and aims to apply the 50/50 methodology to 50 educational centres during two years, creating a European network of schools in favour of saving energy and fight against climate change. Schools are the ideal place to promote energy sustainability, ensuring that future generations consume energy responsibly and influence their families at the same time.

Based on Germany's experience (50/50 concept was created in Hamburg in 1994) the 50/50 concept includes economic incentives for saving energy: 50% of savings achieved from the energy efficiency measures taken by the pupils and behaviour changes are returned by way of an economic transfer, while the other 50% will be a net saving on the bills for the body that pays them. The result is that everyone wins; the school improves its implementation possibilities, the authorities have less energy costs and society benefits due to the reduction in the environmental impact.

To achieve this, the project foresees the creation of Energy Teams, who will be responsible to set the different actions to undertake. In order to determine the schools' energy baselines and the potential energy saving, energy audits are performed. Teaching material (E-packs) is also being developed to promote the 50/50 system and the dissemination of best practices

The goal of EURONET 50/50 is not make big investments, but to increase knowledge and awareness on energy consumption. To facilitate the job of raising awareness and disseminating good practices in energy savings, each school participating in the project will have a blog to share their views and experience as they develop the project. All those 50 blogs will be accessed via the project website www.euronet50-50.eu, where all the documentation and methodology applied will be published. In addition, the EURONET 50/50 project has its own channels on Youtube and Twitter to let you follow the project day by day.