Energy and Climate change are urgent topics. Every day the news is filled with ending sources and Greenhouse effects. The message is clear, action should be taken. The Kyoto protocol is one step. January 2006 the European Union takes another; the new EPBD (energy performance building directive). Every utility building should have a EPBD certificate. That also includes every school in Europe bigger than 1000 m2. In the Netherlands the Eco-Schools program therefore take energy and climate as starting point for implementation.
Under the name of Check it out! a consortium of four organisations offer products and services to the schools. Ecofys for the technical and management advise on energy. COS Nederland and stichting Oikos guarantee professional support on education and global awareness. SME Advies as national coordinator of Eco-Schools support schools in dissemination of their sustainable awareness and off course the ES certification.
With the EPA-U as background Ecofys advises and support schools about good housekeeping. Some small technical measures and good behaviour easily saves up to 8 or 10 percent on energy. In the Netherlands that's a lot of CO2 and also a lot of money that can be used for sustainable education by COS and Oikos and even a donation to a charity fund for Global projects elsewhere in the world. For the Dutch Eco-Schools coordination it means a guaranteed steady income.
In order to make sure the savings will be used properly for sustainable measures and education, the schools signs a five years contract with the consortium. Within those five years Check it out! make sure the savings are reached and well spend. Within two years the schools lives up to the criteria on good housekeeping, implementation of energy and climate change in the curriculum and the dissemination to local stakeholders. They earn the Green flag and the Bronze certificate. For the Silver certificate the school has to implement waste and water management throughout their school organisation and curriculum. The gold standard can be reached by implementing two sustainable themes at random.
What does the Dutch school get within the 5 year contract:
* An EPA-U advice and official EPA-U certificate
* Annual support on energy housekeeping and management
* Every year: a package of hands on educational materials on energy and climate; support and advice on sustainable education and global awareness; and news about their donation to the charity fund for sustainable project elsewhere in the world
* Every two years an audit and certification by Eco-Schools
* At random sponsorship and support from local governments; and incentives (energy mirrors, solar systems etc.)
Share best practices
We'd like to share our best practices with you all. Therefore Ecofys offers the opportunity to join in a European call for energy management. A good chance to benefit from the implementation of the EPA-U at schools in your country. And as ecofys is expert in benchmarking it can give a extra impulse to the Linking program. Ecofys is a European based organisation with offices throughout Europe.
   
For more information on check it out! visit www.checkitout.nu
on Ecofys and the European call visit www.ecofys.nl or mail g.linthorst@ecofys.nl

(August 2005)

Adiante 2004 - A Solar Car crossing Europe

   
The world’s fastest solar car Nuna 2 will make a tour through Europe from May 29th till June 11th: 6500 kilometres from Greece to Portugal through Western Europe. Never before a car drove this distance without using one single drop of fuel, using only solar energy. Nuna 2 is designed and built by Dutch students from Delft University of Technology and she features the newest in technology to drive as efficient as possible. This tour, which is endorsed by Unicef, is called Adiante, which means ‘forward, improved’ in Portuguese and is a symbol for the enormous effort of youth, technique and sustainability, making a progress towards a sustainable future. Children of Europe can support this tour by participating in the giant paneuropean drawing contest and show the world their vision on sustainability. Adiante and Nuna 2 will start the 29th of May from Athens Adiante goes from Greece to Portugal, from the Olympic City to the UEFA Euro 2004, Nuna 2 will cross 15 countries and stop in 16 cities. During these stop-overs, local authorities will welcome the solar car and the team will give the children a demonstration about solar energy.
   
Drawing Contest
By making drawings, European children will be involved in Adiante. In every country on the way, the Nuon Solar Team organises a drawing competition for children between 6 and 14 years old. Through these drawings, the children can visualise their vision on solar energy and a clean future. At the end of Adiante, the Nuon Solar team will be able to present a melting pot of thousands of childrens’ visions to an international audience during the UEFA Euro 2004 in Portugal.
   
From May 29th to June 11th, 2004
The Adiante route covers a large part of the European mainland and is in total approximately 6500 km long. It passes through a number of countries, which have recently become members of the European Union, and therefore Adiante will have a unifying dimension added to the sustainable cause.
   
For more information, visit the website www.nuna2.com

The following countries are in the Adiante-route:
   
29 May - 795km
Athens, GREECE
   
29 May - 720km
Skopje, MACEDONIA
   
30 May - 430km
Belgrade, SERBIA-MONTENEGRO
   
31 May - 370km
Budapest, HUNGARY
   
31 May - 210km
Bratislava, SLOVAKIA
   
 1 June - 60 km
Vienna, AUSTRIA
   
 2 June - 282km
Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC
   
 3 June - 650 km
Bonn, GERMANY
   
 4 June - 310km
The Hague, NETHERLANDS
   
 5 June - 176km
Brussels, BELGIUM
   
 6 June - 310km
Paris, FRANCE
   
 7 June - 535km
Geneva, SWITZERLAND
   
 8 June - 381km
Genoa, ITALY
   
10 June - 1035km
La Coruña, SPAIN
   
11 June - 295km
Porto, PORTUGAL

First Eco-Schools in The Netherlands

   
November 19, 2003 schoolchildren in Goeree Overflakkee (which is situated in the south-western part of The Netherlands) switched on the brand new photovoltaic (PV) systems of the elementary schools 'De Bron' and 'De Molenvliet'. The PV systems were donated by the Eneco Energy organisation to commemorate the first two schools in The Netherlands signing up to the Eco-Schools programme. On the same day these pupils cleaned up the schoolyard. Afterwards they moved on to tidy up the surrounding neighbourhood, led by aldermen representing the environmental and educational departments of the local council. A strong signal to all who care….! Both schools have worked hard all year on environmental education and sustainability. They are using energy saving lamps and take care to handle waste wisely. But such measures really took on effect after pupils proposed some agreements of their own. They consented to turning out lights, turning off faucets and shutting the swing doors. An important part of the programme is a professional environmental quick scan by the Collusie Foundation, that really helps schools on their way. As a result, both schools now have a dedicated policy on environmental education and sustainability down in a plan of action and school guides. Both schools will be supported in their efforts to maintain the Eco-School certificate and obtain the Green Flag next Year.
   
FEE Netherlands has assigned SME, Foundation for Environmental Education, to implement the Eco-Schools program in The Netherlands. Financial support was provided by the province of South-Holland and the ministry of environment (Vrom). We are happy that, a year after the start of the pilot, there are results to be shown. And there is more. Up till now more than 50 city councils throughout the country expressed their firm interest in the program. So we expect a substantial growth in participating schools in 2004.

   
Two workshops were held in one province (South-Holland) with the most important organisations offering projects on environmental management to schools. As a result of this workshop, there will be a combination of efforts to ensure that all schools in the province will have a successful environmental management system in 2005 and that each school will carry out at least one sustainability project per year. Eco-Schools will function as an umbrella to all the educational environmental management projects, ensuring that the 7 steps are being carried out. A proposal to start an Eco-schools pilot project in the province of South Holland was presented (April 2002 - June 2003).

(March 2002)