Saving energy at school and daycare centers

Why save energy in schools and kindergartens?

School is a central place in the lives of young people in Germany. They spend between ten and thirteen years of their childhood and adolescence at school every day and devote a large part of their lives to learning and working inside and outside the classroom. As a social center in the lives of young people, school also has the task of reflecting social developments and preparing them for these developments. This also includes the sustainable, ecological transformation of our economy and society, changing consumer habits, reducing energy consumption and cutting climate-damaging greenhouse gases. In addition to industry, transport and agriculture, this also affects the building sector. Schools are particularly challenged in this respect. In cities and municipalities, schools make up the majority of all public buildings and therefore also represent a major cost factor. In total, there are more than 40,000 general and vocational schools in Germany. Energy-saving projects in schools therefore sensitize pupils to issues of energy saving and resource conservation and at the same time convey a sense of self-efficacy by taking energy-saving measures. In addition to the pupils, the teaching and educational staff are also an important group of people, as they are required to rethink and, if necessary, adapt their own behavioral patterns through their role model effect on the one hand and lifelong learning on the other.

Another group is the 60,000 daycare centers, the majority of which are privately run. Although the main target group of the daycare centers is the educational and administrative staff, in order to actively implement energy-saving measures in the group and administrative rooms, the early and playful introduction of the youngest children to the topic of energy is important and valuable in terms of early childhood development.

Why do schools have such a high CO2 footprint?

Schools have a very high carbon footprint due to the size of the buildings alone. Numerous schools, some with over 1,000 pupils, generate high costs and have high electricity, water and heating requirements. In addition, schools are non-residential buildings where the problem of diffusion of responsibility typically arises from many different user groups: pupils, teaching and educational staff, janitors and cleaning staff, administration, cafeteria and canteen staff, sports clubs and other external user groups. With the exception of the janitors, it is difficult for these user groups to obtain an overview of the school’s energy and resource consumption. At the same time, the operating costs are not borne by the school itself, but by the school authority, i.e. usually the local authority. As a result, there is a lack of personal involvement and financial incentives to reduce energy consumption in the building. This ultimately leads to schools having a large greenhouse gas emission or CO2 footprint.

fifty/fifty – Our energy-saving projects at schools and kindergartens

Since the early 1990s, the Energy Efficiency & Energy Transition department has been running energy-saving projects at schools and kindergartens under the brand name “fifty/fifty – energy saving at schools” in Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony. With fifty/fifty, educational institutions are motivated to save energy in everyday school or nursery life by changing their usage behavior. The basic idea is to provide facilities with financial incentives to save energy. A portion of the energy costs saved is paid out directly to the facilities by the provider – originally up to 50 percent, i.e. “fifty/fifty”. Today, fifty/fifty is a brand name for all forms of energy-saving projects at educational institutions with a financial incentive system. UfU also carries out educational energy and climate protection projects that do not provide for a financial incentive system.

Our approach – participative and action-oriented

Our institute pursues a participatory approach in its work. We therefore do not primarily focus on training in the sense of imparting knowledge from above or outside, but rather initiate and accompany our own activities, support users’ knowledge processes and work with them to develop ways of promoting behavioral change. The special feature of the energy-saving projects designed and implemented by UfU is the holistic involvement of all groups involved in the educational facilities. They form an energy team and take care to use heat, light and other resources sparingly according to their possibilities and abilities. The projects are transferred into school lessons in a practical way and knowledge about energy cycles, resource consumption and renewable energies is imparted using examples from the school itself.

Pupils and teaching staff are empowered and motivated to set the right room temperature in classrooms or group rooms themselves using heating thermostats or room controls and to turn off the heating completely when ventilating. They only switch on the lights when necessary and ensure proper ventilation.
The janitors check the automatic controls of the heating and ventilation systems, check the lighting controls and adjust them to the time and location of building use.
Necessary minor investments or repairs are identified in this context and rectified with the support of the building, school or daycare provider.
In the kindergartens, educational and administrative staff in particular are involved in active measures, and children are brought into contact with the topic of energy in a playful, age-appropriate way.
Municipalities are supported in energy management and monitoring.

fifty/fifty – A successful model for municipal climate protection

fifty/fifty energy-saving projects are used throughout Germany in educational institutions, which ideally reduce their electricity and heat consumption by 5 to 15% (over the entire period compared to the reference year). They thus provide noticeable relief for municipal budgets.

UfU continuously advises local authorities on the introduction of energy-saving models – increasingly also at international level. You can find more information on our own Fifty-Fifty website.

The following elements are part of our energy-saving projects

Kick-off event
Kick-off in the facilities & building inspections
Development/design of the incentive system
Energy controlling/energy monitoring
Establishment of energy teams
On-site activities & educational support
- Introduction to the topics of energy and climate protection
- Energy inventory and catalog of measures
- Measurements for heat, electricity consumption and water
Janitor training
Teacher or educator training and exchange of experience
Closing event

Are you interested in fifty/fifty in your municipality?

Have we aroused your interest? Would you like to introduce the fifty/fifty energy-saving model in your municipality or find out more about the framework conditions? Then please visit our website www.fifty-fifty.eu or contact us – we look forward to hearing from you.