How does it work?

THE PROJECT

Energy Challenges is the project in which behavior and technology come together and where youths make the difference!

Young students from elementary- and high schools are challenged to campaign however they see fit for energy saving and sustainability on their school! Through playful learning, youths discover their talents and get acquainted with the wonderous world of sustainability, energy and technology.

Energy Challenges consists of a campaign course and a technology course. This page gives an overview of the activities during the year of participation.

THE CAMPAIGN

The Energy Challenges challenges youths on elementary- and high schools to a sustainability campaign. Each school forms a team of ‘Energizers’. This team takes the lead in making the school and its environment more sustainable! During the campaign, teams will explore the wonderous world of energy, technology and sustainability.

The project shows students what their influence is on the schools’ energy bill is and how they can affect this bill by changing their behavior. The students are challenged to, as owner of the energy bill, reducing the energy bill. Only by changing your behavior you can already save 15%!

The stars

The energizer all get a big poser on which they can earn eight stars for their achievements. The steps of the stars challenge them to come up with original and creative actions which correspond to school, environment and the talents of the youths. The face of Energy Challenges, Reynauld Ritsma, has made a video message with extra explanation about the stars for each of the stars, which you can find here!

Kick off and finale

The campaign season starts with a slamming kick-off in January and ends with a festive finale in June.

During the Kick-off, all schools that participate in Energy challenges come together. The teams of Energizers have the opportunity to present themselves in a video and get workshops on all the subjects. This will help them with designing their campaign!

The finale is the crown jewel of the campaign! All Energizer teams have the opportunity to present what they did in the five months before. How much did they save? Who made the best campaign? Which school had the most original actions? The jury, together with the Raging Reporters, will decide who will walk away with a prize!

The Energy Experience

During the campaign teams can make use of the Energy Experiences. These are excursions and experiences on the topic of energy, technology and sustainability.

* The layout of the campaign and the usage of the stars differ slightly per region.

TECHNOLOGY

Besides behavior, technology plays an important role in the Energy Challenges. At first, a Quickscan is made of the school building and the installation. Based on that, the technical specialist knows what measuring equipment needs to be installed. After this, the standards usage of the school is determined and the monitoring is installed. Then, a 0 measurement can be made. Based on this measurement, the equipment of the school is adjusted and a measuring instrument is installed which students, teachers and the directors can use to read the exact energy usage. This way, they can see the effect of their actions immediately! Also, a tailormade advice is given to the school to make the building more sustainable. Every region has a technical specialist who guides schools through this process.

Tailor-made advice

During the challenge year, a tailor-made advice of the school building is made based on an extensive inventory. This advice offers perspective on enhancing sustainability extensively by looking at construction, installation methods and energy-management. With the tailor-made advice, action-focused recommendations are offered to the school. With this, the school direction can easily set course to a dramatically more sustainable building.

Energie Manager Online (EMO)

EMO is the energy-monitoring tool that is going to help reduce the energy-usage of the school. It is a website that shows the usage- and the costs of gas and electricity. The technical specialist and the Raging Reporter explain to children how they can use this program. In that way, children can daily measure the school’s energy-usage and even better, see the effects of their actions!

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