Final event – The school community protects the climate

Many beautiful moments from the completion event of the “The school community protects the climate” project “Thess.climateschools” that took place on 14 October at the 8th High School of Halandri.

63 students from the 4th, 7th and 8th High School of Halandri, who participated in the “The school community protects the climate” project last school year, met in the hospitable hall of the 8th High School, with the support and presence of the Municipality of Halandri.

The aim of the meeting was twofold: on the one hand, to bring together the students of the three schools and think about how they can communicate what they have learned to their school community. On the other hand, to inform the municipality about their own actions for the sustainability of their neighbourhood and to listen to their ideas.

The event was divided into two parts.

In the first part, the students worked for an hour in plenary and in groups. The process was coordinated by Community Energy River trainers Faye Ioannidou, Artemis Dourou and Natasha Spinthuraki, who had implemented the series of eight workshops with the three sections last year.

All of them thought and wrote in a post-it: what do I consider important from what I learned in the eight workshops of the programme?

• The cooperation of the class
• The energy tour
• The issue of climate change and the greenhouse effect
• The improvement of our school building
• Saving energy
• Everyone speaking their mind without fear
• That we gained empathy
• That I learned to listen to other people’s opinions
• I got to think about things I took for granted
• Teamwork and participation!
• That we put ourselves in other people’s shoes
• That we learned about energy communitiesΤη συνεργασία της τάξης

Then, each section from the three schools presented to the plenary session their top five ideas on how to share what they had learned with the whole school community.

How can one classroom in each school change the whole reality in the school community? Can it raise awareness about climate change and energy conservation? Can it help to change the way the 15-member school is used to making decisions? I wonder if schools could do parallel or joint actions?

What did the pupils suggest?

• Creating a lesson once a month to inform students about energy and energy saving, energy poverty and environmental awareness. The lesson will be taught by students from the group
• Energy tour once every three months to other students and parents and friends to observe the problems in the building
• Collaboration with teachers to install photovoltaic panels on the roof and create an energy community
• Information and training of 15 members
• Football match with a prize of an energy saving information by students of the team
• Organisation of events by the teams (suggested topics: conditions in the school building, climate change, greenhouse effect)
• Painting by each department on saving, with exhibition of the works at events
• Posters, leaflets, cardboard in different parts of the school with energy-saving tips and ways for the groups to work
• Setting a good example first!
• Interaction with other schools and meetings for updates

In the second part, the ideas were presented and discussed in the presence of representatives of the Municipality of Halandri. Agapi Tsambazi, coordinator of the ecology programme of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Thessaloniki Office, was also present, who spoke about the importance of youth education and read the letter of the Deputy Mayor of Social Policy and Education of the Municipality of Neapolis-Sykeon, Michalis Voulgaridis, about the event.

Excerpt from the letter:

“With the completion of the program, the children undertook actions to raise awareness of the local school community (classmates, parents, teachers) in favor of the environment and especially in favor of energy democracy. We have been pointing out for years and have been ringing the alarm bell about the climate crisis which will give way to climate chaos before we know it. We point out and insist on the direct involvement of the younger generation in climate awareness and protection actions in order to save what can still be saved.”

Deputy Mayor of Education and Citizen Service Centres Efthimios Kourasis and Municipal Engineer Kostis Masouras actively participated in the discussion.

Efthimios Kourasis stressed the importance of activating students who can act as multipliers of what they have learned, as we are now at plus five for the planet, he said. He expressed his pleasure for the implementation of this action in the Municipality of Halandri, which wants to support its children with all its might. He suggested “that the school groups find a way of communicating with each other, so that they can develop their ideas and then share them with the Municipality, with the aim of implementing as many as possible and moving towards a change in mentality and lifestyle”.

Kostis Masouras shared that all the energy interventions that will be made in schools would be very different if it were not for the participation of the students present in this project. For example, the necessity of air renewal in the schools was revealed as a very important need at the meeting held in April in the City Council meeting room with representatives from the three high schools and representatives from the City. It would have taken a different priority and possibly not been implemented in all schools had that meeting not taken place. He also mentioned that the Municipality of Halandri is the first municipality in Greece to create an urban energy community, in which citizens will participate, produce their own energy from photovoltaic panels and also donate part of it to vulnerable households. Furthermore, he informed the student groups that following their idea for school energy communities, a next step has been launched: the Municipality is exploring the implementation of the idea on a school-by-school basis, in as many schools as possible, with the participation of teachers, students and parents, so that they can secure the energy they need. Concluding, Kostis Masouras said: “The most efficient way to improve energy efficiency is a heat pump? Changing windows? No! The most efficient of all is to educate the new generation on energy issues. The planet also has a problem with democracy. The democratisation of energy is a very important task that young people should carry out”.

It was coordinated by Maya Moschandreou from Community Energy River. She highlighted in particular the important contribution of the teachers to the success of the program and how the innovation of the program is that it focuses on solutions and actions that are immediately implementable. “We not only talked about climate change but also about how collective action can mitigate it. We didn’t just talk about saving energy but also about taking care of the school building. We didn’t just talk about energy communities but also about how their members could make decisions by consensus, using specific methodological steps”.

From a pedagogical point of view, it was extremely interesting that the memory of last year’s workshops was vivid in the students and they were very keen to take action. The ideas were many and fresh, full of enthusiasm.

For the program, reference was also made to the spring issue of “FLYARIA of teen8ers & teen6ters”, the school newspaper of the 8th High School and 6th High School of Halandri, an excerpt of which was read to us by the student Katerina Papoutsis. Read the full article here.

Especially in the 4th High School of Halandri, due to the parallel integration of its building in an energy upgrade program, a pilot application of “participatory planning for the energy upgrade of the school building” was designed and implemented, which was funded in the framework of the Erasmus+ 2024-2025 program “Sustainability and energy use Athens-Berlin”. More information about what happened in the Municipality of Halandri within the framework of this project can be found in the Community Energy River press release here.

A big thumbs up to all for participating and sharing! The meeting was a source of hope for strengthening climate protection through local community collaboration! “It is important to be able to hope that young people and young people will bring a different attitude in the way we move and live, we need to change habits”, as Efthimios Kourasis said.

This event was another proof that the school community can indeed protect the climate!

*The project was implemented by Community Energy River in collaboration with Antigone Information and Documentation Centre for Racism, Ecology, Peace and Non-Violence with funding from the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Greece.