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Energy footprint of Greek Schools
ADMINISTRATION OF PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION OF SERRES GREECE
Greece

The Problem

The Administration of Primary Education of Serres' Prefecture has designed and developed a web site (http://www.co2schools.gr) which targets to all Greek schools, both Primary and Secondary education. Through this web site, Greek students can find their school's energy footprint, i.e. the quantity of carbon dioxide which is emitted to the atmosphere due to their consumer habits. Then they are prompted to move to certain actions to improve their environmental footprint.
Apart from the pedagogical part this initiative provides scientifically grounded information to the school administration. This information can be utilized in order to make any necessary changes to the school's infrastructure. In addition schools' data is aggregated to provide each school year the total energy footprint of all country's schools. In addition this information is available to the Greek Ministry of Education, so that the ministry can contribute, through the Greek School Building Authority, either to the construction of environmental friendly schools or to the supply the appropriate equipment to the schools.
This coordinated action encourages the the assumption of initiatives, both in regional and national level, towards the reduction of energy consumption and fuels emission. In our country most of the schools were built before 1985 and did not conform to present environmental specifications with respect to their energy energy consumption. During the last few years the need to modernize the present school infrastructure towards becoming more bioclimatic has been recorded. Through this web page, the Greek state (in national and regional level) is informed about the present situation so that it can later choose its course of action. The matter becomes even more crucial if someone takes into account the important issues of air pollution that cities face and the fact that the majority of power plants in Greece use coil for energy production.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
To ensure the validity of the information that the system provides to the Administration, we ensured that the registration to the web site has been taken up by each school's Administrator, by asking certain information that only the Administrator can provide. In addition no school can register if it cannot be able to provide its official school identification number, which is issued upon school foundation. These numbers can be retrieved on the Pedagogical Institute of Greece web site (http://www.pi-schools.gr/structure/departments/tetet/kvd.php). The successful completion of this program presupposes the usage of information from official fiscal school documents (e.g. power consumption bills, gas, etc).
The first and foremost impact is that after completing the program, the Administration either in school unit, regional or nation level can gain access in a series of very important information which is necessary for finding solutions to issues that may occur:
1. Each schools energy consuming habits (educational staff, administrative staff and pupils).
2. Financial impact of these energy consuming habits (cost, amount of energy).
3. Each school unit's equipment that consumes electricity.
4. The area that each unit covers.
These information which will be collected till the end of the present school year (June 2010) can be properly harvested and can lead to the adoption of certain measures: a) construction of bioclimatic school units, b) surveys on modifying the present school building infrastructure, c) cooperation of local authorities in terms of improving school units energy footprint, d) cooperation with the Public Power Company towards training educational staff, e) development of technical specification regarding a set of electrical appliances necessary in all school units, f) adoption of measures that discourage schools from consuming unjustifiable large amounts of energy.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
This initiative was proposed and implemented by the Administration of Primary Education of Serres' (by the Administrator Mr. Ioannis Karavasilis and the Coordinator of LdV programme Mr. Ioannis Poulios) Prefecture and was supported financially by the the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climatic Change. The web site was developed by Technological Institution of Serres (Mr Savvas Pashalidis) under the scientific supervision of The Greek Center for Renewable Energy Sources (Mrs Argyro Giakoumi). The latter provided the scientific expertise to ensure the validity of the program. Even more the program had the approval of the Greek Pedagogical Institute. Hundreds of Primary and Secondary schools allover Greece were involved in the completion of the program and were benefited from it by monitoring their energy consuming habits and sensitizing the local community for the need to improve infrastructure and habits.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Our main goal is to provide valid information to the Administration by sensitizing pupils and their teachers. Pupils become energy consumption aware. They, the pupils, visit all areas of their school units, they monitor their fellow pupils and the staff's energy consumption habits, they register all school's electrical appliances, they analyze all electricity bills, they categorize the appliances according their energy consumption, they interview the school staff. Thus, in an attractive web environment, which resembles a fun game, pupils find their schools' energy footprint. Then, they are prompted to move on to specific actions to improve their energy footprint.
Apart from the previously mentioned pedagogical goals, this initiative also has administrative goals. Specifically, to provide scientifically grounded information to the school unit's administration, which will be used to carry out the necessary changes in the school unit's infrastructure. This information about all greek schools' energy footprint will be collected and aggregated in order to be used by the authorities (Ministry of Education and Greek School Building Authority) to plan environmental friendly schools.
The following strategies have been chosen to implement the afore mentioned goals:
• Two presentations of the program to teachers, administrators and environmental education consultants in Athens, October 30 2009 and Serres, May 20 2009.
• Promotion of the web page on popular educational portals.
• Cooperation with the media sponsors of the program (national television and the most popular national newspapers).
• Distribution of the programs guide to educational stakeholders.
All these means contributed to the most effective diffusion of the goals and methodology of the program.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The beginning of this initiative was the submission of the programs proposal to the Greek Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climatic Change to claim financial support. The proposal was submitted in November 2008. By December 2008 the total amount of the support (6500 euros) was in our disposal. In February 2009 we moved on to the implementation of our initiative, i.e. the design of our web site in cooperation with the Technological Institution of Serres and the Greek Center for Renewable Energy Sources. By April 2009 the development of the web site was completed and the appropriate posters and guidance booklets were published. In May 2009 the first presentation of the program to all educators took place. In October a similar presentation took place in Athens. We had already filed our request for approval to the Pedagogical Institute. From September till now many schools from allover the country participate in the program. Even more all this time our web site logo was posted on many educational portals.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The first and foremost obstacle we faced was finding a sponsor for our initiative mainly due to the fact that the state authorities which fund environmental initiatives are few. The second obstacle was the lack of scientific expertise so that each school can find its energy footprint. Specifically there was a similar initiative by WWF Hellas we exploited to plan our own initiative. Such expertise is only available by the Greek Center for Renewable Energy Sources that worked together with us to fulfill the programs' goals.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The total cost of the initiative was 6500 euros. This fund came from the Greek Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climatic Change, which sponsored us after submitting our proposal that included a detailed budget and an accurate action plan. Regarding the human resources we exploited the scientific staff of the Greek Center for Renewable Energy Sources, our Administration's European Programs Consultants and also the staff of Technological Institution of Serres.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Our initiative is sustainable and transferable because it evolves on its own web site. This means that there is no need for extra funding for the next years in order to be continued. Our immediate plans include the submission of a proposal to the Greek Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climatic Change for a Pan European web site. On the front page there will be a map of Europe in order for a pupil to select his own country. After country selection the rest of the web page will be presented in his native language.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Teachers who participated in the program claim to be excited with the proposed methodology and surprised with the environmental impact of this initiative. Through the experiencial nature of the program, pupils become autonomous learners and environment aware. The Greek State is willing to harvest the information from the web site and incorporate action for school infrastructure environmental improvement to European Programs.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   ADMINISTRATION OF PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION OF SERRES GREECE
Institution Type:   Public Organization  
Contact Person:   IOANNIS KARAVASILIS
Title:   Administrator of Primary Schools of Serres Greece  
Telephone/ Fax:   0030-2321047512
Institution's / Project's Website:   0030-2321047504
E-mail:   serreschools@yahoo.gr  
Address:   KERASOUNTOS 2
Postal Code:   62100
City:   SERRES
State/Province:  
Country:   Greece

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