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Description
The project bridges the gap between students’ moral stands and actual behaviours related to the efficient use of energy, responsible consumption of energy on campus and/or at home, through trainings, exposure to awareness campaign, contests and events consolidating a pro-environmental behaviour. The project also aims to offer data-based solutions assisting the Timisoara universities, mainly the Politehnica University to envision the campus greening not only as a technical task, but also as a human dimension issue, with major stakeholders involved in active undertaking of steps towards a more efficient and sustainable use of energy, thus ensuring the ownership of the initiatives by the academic community and securing a sustainable persistence of the obtained effects.
Main expected outputs:
- Number of awareness raising campaigns: 5
- Number of people completing comprehensive (more than 2 days) trainings on renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy security implemented: 60
- Number of people completing short (less than 2 days) trainings on renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy security implemented: 20
- Number of people reached by the awareness-raising on renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy security: 8.100
The role of the Norwegian partner is to provide consultancy and offer mentoring advice to the Applicant in:
- establishing the baseline for the current situation at Politehnica University Timisoara regarding energy consumption knowledge and behavior, in a comparative (Norwegian-Romanian) perspective,
- providing support for the training package for students and administrative personnel,
- preparing the exchange of experience between the Project Promoter and relevant Norwegian institutions (universities),
- enhancing the transfer of knowledge between partners of USE-REC project,
- and participating in the preparation and evaluation of each major set of activities.
Summary of project results
The project bridged the gap between pro-environmental regulations, declarations and/or beliefs, on one hand, and actions and lifestyles in the Politehnica Timisoara University campus, on the other. Its focus was primarily to increase knowledge on renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy security. As a secondary effect, the project helped reducing the CO2 footprint of students living on campus, via interventions in campus living and activities.
The project also aimed at creating a synergy between the efforts undertaken by Politehnica University and the local authorities towards actively and consciously reaching sustainability targets incorporated in the United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Global Goals. The study years of the future highly skilled laborers are preparing not only professionals, but citizens, individuals whose lifestyle, behaviors at home, work and society influence the well-being of all.
As a response to the identified need for tailored solutions, as preconditions to start the campus greening process, the Promoter implemented an integrated approach involving:
- a human component, targeting the student population to adopt and promote responsible and sustainable energy consumption, via information and awareness campaigns, training seed-factors to act as ambassadors of the project, sharing the views of the Promoter (University) and best European practices;
- a managerial component, involving the university top decision-making bodies, to adopt a position paper on sustainability and incorporate in the strategic vision a clear component incorporating the project outcomes;
- a procedural-administrative component, creating the "same page” knowledge and behavior of administrators of residencies via trainings and provision of tools for informing campus residents on effective energy consumption targets; securing appropriate documents to support sustainable behavior on campus premises;
- a technical component, uncovering points of energy waste on campus and frequently used devices and appliances on campus leading to certain consumption patterns, depending on seasonal conditions and activities.
By the completion of the project the Promoter has offered the university 60 student ambassadors of behavioral change for the sustainable use of energy, 8.100 students exposed to activities and demonstrations of “walking the talk” and actively engaging in activities for using energy sparingly, 20 persons in administrative personnel supervising and promoting the sustainable use of energy on campus, data based solutions for prioritizing interventions towards campus greening, procedural-administrative tools to perpetuate the energy efficiency measures on campus and one policy paper adopted by the university management in its strategic planning.
Activity 1. Assessment of baseline (existing situation)
Assessment of sustainability of energy consumption concerns seen by the major stakeholders.
The project evaluated the energy consumption on campus, highlighting heat losses per building, energy consumption at the level of each student residency, and ways in which the buildings, and energy-consuming appliances and devices are used. These scans laid the basis for proposing solutions for energy efficiency and education of the students to develop sustainable energy consumption and to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings and people on campus.
Activity 2. Developing competencies and enhanced knowledge of relevant actors for promoting a more efficient use of energy:
- exchanges of experience with the Norwegian partner - visit to Norwegian university campus(es) to observe, on site, practices, and concerns regarding sustainability measures in the field of energy consumption and student life;
- a visit of the Norwegian partner to Timisoara to advise on measures for campus greening, content that was included in the training package and solutions proposed to Politehnica University management;
- training on increasing energy efficiency in student life: training of administrative staff with responsibilities in the field of student housing; training of students as vectors of change for a sustainable behaviour (project ambassadors); summer school on “Living and Promoting a Responsible and Sustainable Life”.
Activity 3. Information and awareness campaign concerning sustainable energy use, focused on students awareness - online and offline information and awareness campaign
Activity 4. Evaluation of the change in student knowledge and behavior regarding the energy efficiency and setting the ground for sustainable action:
Results:
- 2 training sessions for students to act as vectors of change,
- 1 summer school on “Living and Promoting a Responsible and Sustainable Life”,
- 1 training for administrative personnel, relevant for student housing and services,
- 7.000 students participating in the events within the frame of the project (contest between residencies, information and awareness campaign, sports events, posters, and flyers distributed on project activities),
- 1.000 students self-reporting enhanced knowledge on energy efficiency,
- 8.100 students self-reporting enhanced capacity/skills related to renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy security,
- 1 awareness-raising campaign (offline) + 1 contest of original, student-generated messages on social media accounts,
- 1 model for housing regulation ensuring the sparing use of energy at student residencies,
- over 4.500 housing contracts, containing energy saving measures have been signed,
- 1 comparative study on the increase of student awareness on environmental footprint (energy consumption), highlighting the baseline and the level obtained by the completion of the project,
- 2 scientific articles, 1 popularization article, 2 workshops and 2 presentations at international conferences related to the project results,
- 1 action of selective collection of electrical waste (electric bulbs and small devices),
- 8 messages distributed to at least 7.000 students via mobile student apps,
- 2 press conferences (at the beginning and at the completion of the project) + 2 least TV shows at the Politehnica University in-house channel (TeleUniversitatea).
Summary of bilateral results
The Norwegian Partner (Quality Systems Management) provided expertise throughout the project, assisting the management team to establish the baseline for the current situation regarding the knowledge and behavior of energy consumption at the Politehnica University of Timisoara, in a comparative perspective (Romanian - Norwegian). Also, the Partner provided training support as well as development support for the documents for university management, prepared the exchange of experience and contributed to the transfer of knowledge between the partners of the project.