Training of secondary education teachers on climate protection and energy saving

It was an interactive, interesting, positive energy training seminar of secondary education teachers on climate protection and energy saving practices at school. According to the framework of the program “OPEN SOCIETIES AND SCHOOLS IN CLIMATE PROTECTION AND ENERGY TRANSITION (CLIMATE SCHOOL Be.At)”, 200 teachers from 65 primary, secondary, high school and technical education schools of Athens and neighboring areas will be trained so that they will be able to take action and make research in their schools to raise awareness of the educational community and change behaviors to achieve energy saving.

The seminar was held on the 19^th of May and took place at the 1st Experimental Secondary School of Athens. A seminar with similar content will follow on the 9^th of June and will involve the training of primary education teachers. The 200 teachers from both primary and secondary education will participate in a total of 24 hours of training (6 hours in the spring of 2018, followed by 14 hours in September and 4 hours in May 2019). Responsible for the organization of both trainings is the social cooperative ”Wind of Renewal /Anemos Ananeosis”.

The training was implemented by various experts, including experienced teachers and schools’ consultants, environmental education directors, etc. The trainers had been trained in the principles, methodology and objectives of the program “OPEN SOCIETIES AND SCHOOLS IN CLIMATE PROTECTION AND ENERGY TRANSITION (CLIMATE SCHOOL Be.At)” on a 4 days extended seminar that also took place in Athens during 12^th -15^th April 2018 (“Training of the Trainers”). The “Training of the Trainers” was implemented by a team of Greek experts and teachers together with instructors of the German Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU) with the coordination of ”Wind of Renewal /Anemos Ananeosis” and the Municipality of Athens.

 

In the 19^th of May training were trained 95 teachers of secondary education. The 95 teachers had previously expressed their interest and were selected to participate in the program. The training lasted 6 hours and focused on the following topics:

• Theoretical input on energy and climate change.

• Familiarization with methods of creating an action plan for each school in order to save energy and raise the awareness of the school community in climate change.

• Familiarization with methods of coordinating energy-saving actions (organizing an energy group, energy council, energy tour at the school, etc.).

• Implementation of energy saving soft measures at school.

• Introduction to recording and processing data methods.

The methodological process of the implementation of the program has been structured on the basis of the following 10 steps:

1. Define an energy group for the school

2. Define an energy council for the school

3. Organize an energy tour of the energy council

4. Study of the energy situation of the school (raise awareness on climate change issues)

5. Energy tour at the heating room of the school with the energy team

6. Data processing-Action Plan for energy saving and raise awareness on climate change

7. Create a campaign to promote the implementation of the action plan in the school community

8. Apply energy saving measures

9. Make proposals for changes to the building’s infrastructure

10. Evaluate overall implementation of the program

The implementation of the program will be followed by a research framework. Aim of the research is to track the pilot implementation of the program. At the end of the program, a more comprehensive study that will be based on the collected research data will be articulated. This study will be used by the Municipality of Athens in order to formulate an action plan in the direction of energy saving and the development of sustainable practices in all the municipal schools.

The program “OPEN SOCIETIES AND SCHOOLS IN CLIMATE PROTECTION AND ENERGY TRANSITION (CLIMATE SCHOOL Be.At)” constitutes a collaboration between the Municipality of Athens, the educational community, the Social cooperative “Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal”, the German citizens initiative Respekt für Griechenland e.V. / Respect for Greece (Berlin) and the German Unabhängiges Institut für Umweltfragen / UfU. It aims to the mobilization of the educational community, local communities and municipalities for climate protection and energy transition as well as to the energy efficiency of the schools with the substantial participation and collaboration of the teachers, students, parents and local authorities. The program is under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Education.

The program aims to:

• enhance the overall efforts to inform and raise awareness of students, teachers and parents and their involvement in climate protection and reduce energy waste,

• reduce the energy footprint (of the electricity consumption) of the municipal school buildings (by 5%)

• an overall effort to reduce the ecological footprint of the municipal schools

The duration of the program is 28 months (2017-2019) and aims to raise awareness on climate change and energy consumption in the municipal schools of Athens.

The program was evaluated and selected for funding by the European Climate Initiative (EUKI), which is a project financing instrument by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). It is the overarching goal of the EUKI to foster climate cooperation within the European Union in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. It does so through strengthening cross-border dialogue and cooperation as well as exchange of knowledge and experience.