The project

Background

Pupil’s behaviour is crucial both at school and at home. The project focuses on this factor, encouraging pupils to save energy. As a Support Organization of the Covenant of Mayors the network SERN is committed to promoting internal actions that contribute to achieving the objectives of the Covenant, and more generally the targets set by the European Union in the field of energy consumption.
The 50/50 project and its methodology have been originally developed within the European project Euronet 50/50 supported by the EIE (European Intelligent Europe).

Objectives

  1. Valorise, transfer and further develop the results of the original project (Euronet 5050) on a larger scale;
  2. Raise awareness among the pupils on the theme of energy savings;
  3. Develop a process aiming to engage a wide range of actors at local and transnational level.

how does it work

The project will bring into classrooms a methodology that has been thought to teach children how to use energy wisely and how to save it through actions which causes behavioural changes in the pupil. These changes will set in motion a process that will ultimately bring to lower energy waste in schools. Economic incentives for energy savings are agreed between schools and municipalities (which usually run schools) at the beginning of the project to support the activities. 50% of the energy savings generated during the project due to the change of behaviour of pupils and teachers shall be reimbursed to the school, while of the remaining half, 40 % becomes a net savings for municipalities that pay the bills. The remaining 10% is turned to SERN as a contribution to the total expenditure of the project.
In the end everybody wins: the school receives extra funding, municipalities pay less in terms of costs and help to reach the environmental objectives established at regional, national and European level. At the same

Actors and roles

SERN – Coordinates the overall implementation of the project, ensuring the organizational and managerial aspects in a transnational perspective. The network is responsible for the reporting activities to the funding organizations that contribute to the implementation of the project. It also manages the project website in order to promote and enhance the project. It identifies the experts to support the schools where needed. Finally, it develops, buys and distributes the 50-50 toolkit for schools (thermometer, lux meter, materials for the energy teams).

Municipalities – Identify the basis of calculation of savings starting from the previous consumption, they help the school in the calculation of the savings and transfer 50% of the money saved to the school.

Schools – Create the energy team: a group formed between pupils, teachers, a representative of the municipality, and the energy expert. They implement the steps of the methodology and interact with the municipality and SERN. They share the activities on the website of the project and communicate with the other schools in Italy and Sweden.