A school is an ecosystem that brings together a variety of actors and different missions in one place: students, teachers, educators, administrative staff, technical staff, parents, maintenance and operating technical equipment companies... and it is often difficult to address the energy issue because it is often considered daunting, complicated and restrictive or constraining. Heating, lighting, bills ... are energy related topics, which are often a source of conflict within schools. With this in mind, to change things can only be done as a team.Energy Management Schools project intends to develop an energy education program based on a participative approach dedicated to schools (schools, colleges) and leisure and educative centers or similar. This is to propose a school challenge bringing together all stakeholders of a school facilities around a common goal of energy conservation and management.6 organizations from 5 countries (Belgium, Croatia, Spain, France, Sweden) cooperate in this project. Around 500 participants from elementary schools, college or leisure centers students (8-14 years) to adults of the same institutions (teachers, management, technical staff, managers), local authorities staff, but also parents and external stakeholders (associations, mediators ...) will be involved.The project implementation is planned over 3 years. A one-year study phase to create the tools that will be tested in 1 or 2 establishments per country (Croatia, Spain, France, Sweden) in an experimental phase of a second school year. Finally, a third year will be dedicated to spin this energy education tool via a school energy challenge.4 outputs will be produced: 1. the " energy savings Toolbox " for a school and the associated 2."learning scheme" (pedagogical scheme/path) that will be presented during a dissemination event in France. The tests performed during the experimentation in schools (in year 2) will help in producing the 3."energy efficient school manual". It will give the opportunity to organise a round table conference in Croatia and Spain on energy education in schools. The 4th output will be a recommandatin and study report and will be based on a university research work during the experimentation phase. It will give recommendations on how to use such tool and challange and it will be the overall topic of a seminar in Sweden.The expected outcomes of this energy education program are the energy consumption reduction in the 3 to 5 participating pilote schools throught the challenge.The short-term impacts are the development of students and school staff knowledge and skills regarding energy management and project management. Dissemination of the program beyond the project partners may contribute in the longer term to the strengthening and enrichment of existing energy education programs and their expansion to other institutions with the support of the regional or national governments.
The major environmental challenges require that each citizen develops an ability to understand the issues that must be addressed and to seek and implement solutions. Each person should be able to (re)find a power to act, at his or her own level. This is the whole point of developing energy education projects for children. A school is an ecosystem that brings together in the same place various actors with different missions: students, teachers, educators, administrative staff, technical staff, parents, companies involved in the maintenance and operation of technical equipment... It is often difficult to address the issue of energy because frequently, it is considered to be complicated and restrictive. Heating, lighting, water consumption, waste... are all energy-related topics that deserve to be discussed with young people as part of energy education projects in and outside school. Energy education aims to enable young people to: - acquire knowledge about energy (sources, production, consumption...). - understand the impact of our lifestyles, particularly in terms of energy consumption on our immediate and distant environment. - have the appropriate tools in order to initiate changes in their behaviour and to encourage them to develop eco-citizen attitudes. Energy Management schools has made it possible to develop an energy education program based on a participatory approach for educational institutions (schools, colleges) and recreation centres. The idea is to propose a challenge: the thrifty school", bringing together all the actors of an establishment around the same objective of energy control. 6 organizations from 5 countries (Belgium, Croatia, Spain, France and Sweden) cooperated in this project. About 500 participants, primary school, college or recreation centre students (8-14 years old) and adults from these same establishments (teachers, directors, technical staff, managers), collectivity agents, but also parents and external stakeholders (associations, mediators, etc.) were involved. A one-year study phase made it possible to create the tools, which were then tested in 1 or 2 establishments per country (Croatia, Spain, France, Sweden) during an experimental phase. A third year was devoted to the dissemination of this energy education system through a competition, the "economical/ thrifty school" challenge. 4 types of productions were carried out: - the "Energy Saving Toolbox", - "learning paths" tested in schools or recreation centres, - a study report resulting from research work during the experiment. It contains recommendations for the animation of the system within the framework of the "thrifty/ economical school" challenge. The expected results of this energy education programm are: the reduction of energy consumption in the 3 to 5 schools per country participating in the competition. The impacts envisaged in the short term are the development of knowledge and skills of students and school staff in energy and project management. Spreading the programme beyond the project partners can, in the long term, contribute to strengthening and enriching existing energy education programmes and extending them to other institutions with the support of regions or States