„Energy Bus” – mobile education and information centre against climate change

Project Goals

The main objective of the campaign is increasing social awareness of climate change. This involves the causes of climate change and actions which can be carried out to counter climate change, and also encouraging everyone to take action against climate change in everyday life and their environment: at home, work, school, or the local community. The aim of the project is creating a mobile education and information centre inside a specially equipped and designed bus. Despite the increase in social awareness of climate change, the fact that we all contribute to it, and that everyone can take up action against it, is not common knowledge. The main job of the mobile centre and the educational programme will be reaching out to the inhabitants of municipalities and increasing ecological awareness in wide-ranging social groups (representatives of local government, entrepreneurs, residents). Part of the project’s realization is carrying out educational campaigns in 200 municipalities. The experts travelling with the bus will constitute an advisory group, offering free, independent and up-to-date knowledge connected to climate change and energy efficiency. The group will not be connected with the interests of particular companies or equipment producers, which will ensure the information provided is independent and reliable.

 

Identifying the target audience and the level of compatibility between the project and its needs and requirements

The target audience of the campaign is society as a whole as each of us, through their actions, has an effect on climate change. According to research conducted by Our Earth Foundation in 2012, almost half of the respondents do not or undertake only limited ecological actions. Moreover people who do not undertake any ecological actions believe that, „there is no immediate need for changing people’s attitudes towards the natural environment, climate changes are cyclical, natural, not affected by humans, and prefer urban to natural environments, information on ecological disasters do not evoke any feelings, and the ecological crisis, or the dangers connected with it, have no immediate effect on their lives”. This shows that educational measures, aimed at increasing social awareness, and examples showing the impact of human actions on the environment and the climate are still needed.

 

The concept of the education and information bus could be tailored to the specific conditions in a particular municipality. At the same time its flexibility would allow adding valuable input to already implemented local initiatives aimed at decreasing energy use, and through this improving the environmental conditions on a global scale. The experts in charge of the education and information centre will be able to provide information, which would be the most suitable for a particular municipality, and will reach out to the participants again, after completing the successive stages of the project, to monitor the undertaken ecological actions initiated by the campaign.

 

The information and education bus will create an opportunity to reach out to municipalities and initiate changes in consumer behaviour, establishing contact and cooperation with local decision makers, and initiating actions aimed at energy conservation, and by this mitigating climate change at the local government level and among small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

 

The project aims not only at disseminating information and providing advice on themes connected to energy efficiency and environmental protection, but also initiating discussion on these topics and influencing decision makers responsible for creating local ecologic-environmental strategies in municipalities. The experts will pass on their knowledge on how alternative and environmentally friendly energy sources and new solutions facilitating energy savings,will perform an increasingly important role in polish and global economies, while presenting examples of their implementation in individual households, businesses, and municipalities.

 

Part of the planned programme is collecting and disseminating good practices – actions aimed at mitigating climate change.

 

Energy saving is more than a lower energy bill, but also saving water, rational waste disposal, and also preventing resource and material waste. All of the above aspects are connected to sustainable development and sustainable energy use, and will be the themes of the planned campaign.

 

Plan of the project

The project is planned for 36 months including two main stages:

  • lasting 9 months:

 Organization, finance, and logistics, renting a bus, installing technical equipment. Preparing the creative concept, preparing the informational and educational materials for the campaign (multimedia presentations, posters, models), designing the website, training the experts in charge of the education and information centre, organizing media and informational campaigns, organizing a press conference inaugurating the „Energy Bus”.

  • lasting 27 months:

 Organization and coordination of the 16 campaigns in 16 voivodeships (each one will last a month on average, each one will include a municipality in one of the voivodeships and the „Energy Bus” will be participating in local, regional, and national events); as well as media coverage in newspapers, radio, and on the internet., organizing accompanying events: training days and workshops, „Climate Days”, youth contest, campaign summary conference.

 

The education and information centre will be equipped with a range of demonstration materials, models of various equipment etc. Two experts will be travelling on the bus. Apart from giving multimedia presentations the experts will be able to demonstrate new solutions using the equipment which will be part of the bus’ inventory. The information and education bus will act as a public exhibition with a practical demonstration laboratory, where each visitors will be able to experiment with the equipment. The Mobile Centre will become a periodic discussion and information forum, increasing the ecological awareness of people living in municipalities and encouraging the implementation of new development strategies in municipalities and SMEs. The experts will present examples of already implemented measures generating tangible results at household, SMEs, and local government levels, as well as indicating financing options for these projects.

 

As part of the „Energy Bus” the experts will offer workshops in energy conservation, water management and waste disposal in an office or workspace for civil servants. It is assumed there will be at least five workshops conducted in each voivodeship. In each voivodeship there will be at least two meetings for local entrepreneurs organized, taking the form of workshops on energy and water conservation and waste management.

 

As part of the plan, multimedia reports in the form of photo casts on local climate change mitigating actions will be prepared.

 

The bus’ route will be accompanied by a media campaign in newspapers, radio, and on the internet. Part of the media campaign will be preparing 16 „Climate Days” in local radio stations in each voivodeship. An event running alongside the campaign will be a youth contest titled „Fighting Climate Change”.

 

A dedicated website with the current campaign news and electronic materials used on the bus e.g. multimedia presentations, will be designed.

 

The whole project will be concluded with a conference titled „Energy Conservation – a way of fighting climate change”, during which the campaign will be summed up, and the results and the achievements of the project will be presented.

Key tasks

  • Preparing the bus for its mobile education and information centre role
  • Preparing educational and informational materials for the campaign participants
  • Designing and developing a website for the project
  • Designing a computer game and mobile phone application
  • Media campaign in newspapers, radio and on the internet
  • Press conference
  • Organizing 16 voivodeship campaigns
  • Workshops for civil servants and entrepreneurs
  • Youth contest
  • Campaign summary conference
Co nowego?

Zapraszamy do odwiedzenia naszego autobusu energetycznego na Miejskim Dniu Inteligentnej Energii w Częstochowie.

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