Project title
ABCinEnergy – Advanced tools for Behavioural Change in energy consumption for Higher Education Stakeholders
Topic
Sustainability in the field of energy consumption for Higher Education Institutions
Duration
01/10/2024-31/10/2027
Project description
The ABCinENERGY project aims to promote behavioral change in energy consumption within higher education institutions (HEIs) to reduce environmental impact. It strengthens HEIs and their communities to become the power of change in the energy crisis and to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). HEIs will use tailor-made tools to initiate actions, and to manage and monitor the community’s impact.
In the past decade and especially recent years environmental protection and sustainability have become the core priorities in Europe. Aside from the European Green Deal, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the recent REPowerEU Plan focuses specifically on saving energy. Europe even increased ambition for energy savings by raising the EU-wide target on energy efficiency for 2030 from 9% to 13%. It is a big call for all organizations to take their actions seriously, not only on the policy level. Besides, the EU has identified a focus on actively engaging energy consumers and the need to turn them into change agents.
In this regard, most of the European HEIs have identified priorities in sustainability and do their part to reach the related goals. However, it is not that easy to actively implement the necessary changes, since practical tools and knowledge regarding related KPIs are missing. The ABCinENERGY project focuses on identifying HEIs strengths and weaknesses to reach the set goals for their institutions. In particular, the project will create a digital tool to empower HEIs to more effectively measure and monitor the change in energy consumption. Moreover, the project aims to create a sustainable pathway for the involvement and training of HEI community members enabling them to become change makers and create the ABCinENERGY community.
Based on these considerations, the ABCinENERGY project sets out to reach the following goals:
- Ensuring practical and impactful implementation of HEIs Sustainability Strategy in energy consumption;
- Developing an internal online tool for the education of HEIs community members and the measurement of their behavioural change in the field of energy consumption;
- Providing attractive ways for students and HEI staff to become active participants in sustainability thus fostering knowledge exchange and adaptation of the project results beyond the partnership and the field of higher education;
- Ensuring wide and sustainable access to the ABCinEnergy results among students, HEI staff and management within and beyond the academic field.
- To identify tackling environmental and climate change challenges in a strategic and sustainable way at HEIs while using digital tools which support digital and green capabilities of the higher education sector.
Based on these actions, the project will produce the following results:
- Guidelines for intervention with HEI community members;
- Innovative methodology to monitor KPIs;
- Online Habit Tracker Platform;
- Recommendations for plan of actions fostering sustainability in energy consumption in HEIs;
- User-friendly guidelines for students and HEI staff.