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“We saw with our own eyes, how dramatically the climate change modifies the lifestyle of humans
today!" Louise Willneff and Nico Angerstein, the participants of International School Congress
“Energy Efficiency in Schools” vividly remember that even the smallest of the energy savings
project in the school is closely connected with great environmental challenges of the 21st century.
Both the students took part in the Arctic expedition organised by the British Council: since then
they have championed the cause of climate protection as “Climate Champions”.
The speech by Louise and Nico was an ideal prelude for the congress, which took place on 7th
and 8th October 2010 in Stralsund, then it was about inspiring students for a sustainable energy
management. In addition to few speeches, there were also interactive events in the program:
workshops, an outlet of possibilities and excursions to energy-related large projects such as
nuclear fusion experiment “Wendelstein 7” in Greifswald. 130 participants from 12 European
countries arrived and there were approx. 60 students among them.
Presentations by the students were special highlights of the program. Agriculture students of
Agriculture University Schlierbach (Austria) demonstrated on a John-Deere tractor how one can
save 20% of fuel through clever driving. Matteo Manfron and Davide Stocco from ISIS Andrea
Ponti Gallarate (Italy) presented how their school was destroyed in April 2009 during an
earthquake and is now being rebuilt as a zero-energy building under technical cooperation of the
students.
Even the adult participants offered interesting insights into their technical and pedagogical work.
Thus, Sonja Hoffman presented the master plan for climate protection of the Hanseatic City of
Hamburg with a poster, with which the schools are supposed to reduce their CO2 emissions
systematically. With simple experiments, Helga Spitzer and Joseph Gröber from ARGE ÖKOLOG
Kärnten (Austria) communicated how we come into contact with various forms of energy in our
daily life.
Tree planting in the climate forest Schuenhagen was a further highlight of the program. “More often
than not there are huge gaps between talking and doing,” says Tilman Langner from Umweltbüro
Nord e.V., who led the preparations for the congress. “Through the arrival of the participants we
have caused a lot of environmentally damaging CO2. The trees that were planted will fix this in the
next decades and will largely balance the environmental impact of the event.”
The congress was the final event of the European project “Energy Education Governance Schools”
(EGS). Detailed information, presentations, manuscripts, photos, videos and CO2 balance are
published on the website www.egs-project.eu. A video clip is available at
http://vimeo.com/17137544
The congress was organised by Environmental Office North (registered association). The following
partners supported the event: Stralsund University of Applied Science, Consortium for nature and
environmental education in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Teaching facility for nature protection
and sustainable development of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, International Climate Champions
of British Council Germany, Norddeutsche Stiftung für Umwelt und Entwicklung.
The EGS project is supported by Intelligent Energy Europe.
Contacts: Tilman Langner, Environmental Office North / Umweltbüro Nord e.V., Badenstr. 45, D-
18439 Stralsund, Tel./Fax: +49-3831-703838, Mail:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, Web:
www.umweltschulen.de
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Press release