Climate school Berlin-Athens

Climate Schools Berlin-Athens is a project to reduce the energy consumption of schools in the city of Athens. At the same time, the aim is to raise awareness of the consequences of climate change and energy consumption in schools.
Project goals

The 28-month project consists of the following main components:

• Training and multipliers
  Training for trainers and teachers, implementation of new educational curricula in 80 pilot schools, information events. All these activities run parallel to ongoing field research in the pilot schools with the active participation of all teachers involved
• Education and networking
  Awareness campaign for climate protection and establishment of an active network of schools, trainers and experts in Germany and Greece
• Improving energy efficiency
  Reduction of the pilot schools’ energy requirements by at least 5% per school
• Development of an action plan
  Development of an action plan for the city of Athens for all public schools to raise awareness and increase energy efficiency in schools.

Background of the project

Schools are among the public buildings with the highest energy requirements in Greece. The reasons for this are:

• Excessive use of artificial light
• Inefficient heating technology
• Lack of heat/cold insulation of the building façade

The low awareness of building users (pupils, teachers, school management, technical staff) leads to a high degree of energy waste: lights and electronic devices remain switched on even when there are no people in the room, heating and cooling run all day long, even when the ambient temperatures do not require it, etc. Neither teachers nor pupils are aware of the simplest ways to save energy in everyday life. Through the project, all participants can achieve significant reductions in consumption in school buildings. As a result, they protect the environment and receive a financial bonus for the costs saved.