Climate School Be.At – Open Societies and Schools in Climate Protection and Energy Transition

Background

Schools are among the public buildings with the highest energy consumption in Greece. Simple measures can lead to a significant reduction, however, which has both financial and environmental benefits. The Municipality of Athens (MoA) backs these measures and recently approved the city’s first climate action plan. Its aim is to reduce the city’s energy consumption by 40% by 2030 relative to 2014. For communal buildings, including schools, the goal is a 52% reduction in energy consumption and associated emissions.

Project

The Climate School Be.At project was supported by the Greek Ministry of Education and ran for 28 months. It worked with 72 primary and secondary schools covered by the Municipality of Athens to reduce energy consumption by at least 5% per school. It also aimed to improve awareness of climate change and energy efficiency among those taking part in the pilot schools. The activities are being continued at the schools. The project had three pillars: 

• Training teachers, conducting educational activities and encouraging field research by the school community in the pilot schools
• Running a campaign to raise awareness of climate change mitigation and creating a network involving the pilot schools and the new environmental centre in Athens
• Supporting development of a plan of action by the Municipality of Athens to boost environmental and climate protection awareness in school communities.

Collaboration with schools in Berlin provided an opportunity to share experience and discuss educational and technical issues on topics such as energy efficiency and school refurbishments.

Results

• Creation of a plan of action for the Municipality of Athens that can be used in all of its schools.
• Launch of a website with information and educational materials about the plan of action.
• Training of 240 teachers from Athens schools with the help of an educational handbook on the climate and energy conservation.
• Provision of 15 cases containing technical equipment for measuring energy, brightness, etc., which could be borrowed by participating classes.
• Creation of a digital Moodle platform for all the participating schools to upload their work. This platform continues to be used and the results from other schools are being added to it.