Together Towards Energy Efficiency

The project “Together Towards Energy Efficiency” , a follow-up of the project “Energy Efficient Society, Our Aim“, was done by “Environment Engineering Group“ in cooperation with many partners.

The Project “Towards Energy Efficiency” was done from February until December 2009 in the territory of the South Bačka district with support of the following partners:

- The South Bačka administrative district,

- The Provincial Secretariat for environment protection and sustainable development,

- Faculty of technical sciences and Provincial centre for energy efficiency – Novi Sad,

- Magazine “Caffe Vojvodina“,

- Newspapers “Zeleni krug” and “Ekolist”,

- Students cultural centre - Novi Sad,

- Intercultural centre “Theatre”,

- Developing fund for the youth,

- Fund for local improvement and democracy.

The aim of the project was to improve energy efficiency in households, through strengthening the role of community and cooperation of all participants in this field of work, with aim of reduction of pressure on the environment and establishing sustainable development, that is the reduction of nature resources.

Activities realized were categorized as follows:

- Work with pilot households;

- Organizing lectures/roundtables;

- Educative campaign;

- Lobbying for introducing simulative measures for establishing of energy efficiency in households;

Work with pilot households

Thanks to the previous positive experience, 15 more-that-one-member households participated in the project. In these households, electric energy consumption was analysed and suggestions and directions on how to reduce electric energy were given. Within the project, bulbs in the households were replaced with more energy efficient bulbs. After the implementation of suggested energy efficiency measures, monitoring was done for a year in order to empirically determine the effects of the measures implemented.

Lectures / round tables

In cooperation with the South Bačka administrative district and Among-municipalities working group for environment protection and sustainable development in the South Bačka district, Faculty of technical sciences and Provincial centre for energy efficiency – Novi Sad, five one-day lectures / round tables were organized. On these occasions, the representatives of organizations and institutions from Beočin, Temerin, Bačka Palanka, Bački Petrovac and Žabalj were introduced with the problem of insufficient energy efficiency and means for improving energy efficiency at local level.

Educative campaign

Within the project, an educative campaign was organized as well as participation at several meetings devoted to energy efficiency. Within the educative campaign, workshops for children and the youth were held, an art contest for pupils of elementary and secondary schools in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina was organized, a series of texts on energy efficiency were published in Magazine “Caffe Vojvodina“ and in newspaper “Ekolist“. During the educative campaign, the interested citizens had a chance to get informed and educated about means and methods of energy behaviour in their own households.

Lobbying for introducing stimulative measures for establishing energy efficiency in households

Among-municipalities working group for environment protection and sustainable development in the South Bačka district was formed in November 2008 and it consists of representatives of local self-governments from the territory of the South Bačka district that deal with the problems of the environment. Beside the representatives of local self-governments, the group also gathers the representatives of non-governmental organizations, the public communal company “Vode Vojvodine“ (“Waters of Vojvodina”), Provincial Secretariat for environment protection and sustainable development and the representatives of German agency for technical cooperation – GTZ. Thanks to the cooperation with the Among-municipalities working group and sustainable development, local self-governments were suggested to begin programs and projects at local level that will result in improvement of energy efficiency.

About the realized activities

During the project, all planned activities were successfully done. The only exception was a promotional campaign that was supposed to be done within the sail of the ship “Theatre“. The campaign was not done due to the extension of the deadline for repairs of the ship “Theatre“ and it was replaces with other promotional activities.

Activities were done as planned within four groups:

A1 – Work with pilot households

Work with 15 pilot households was successfully realized. All 15 households that were worked with were households consisting of more than one member and they shown high motivation and wish to participate in the project. The work with households was monitored by 5 co-workers, in particular, every co-worker monitored work in three households. In cooperation with the residents of the households, every household was provided with a specific suggestion with a detailed guidance for reduction of electric energy consumption, basic information and knowledge on energy efficiency and ordinary bulbs were replaced with energy efficient bulbs. After the replacement of the bulbs, electric energy consumption in households was monitored from April until September 2009. The total reduction in all monitored households was 1844 kWh in 7 months. 4 out of 15 households failed to produce savings, while eleven households made savings.

In the households in which there were no savings, the level of consumption remained approximately the same, except in one household in which, due to the new circumstances incurred, electric energy consumption increased up to 1669 kWh in 7mounths. Because of this, the result of total savings was almost half of expected.

A2 - Organizing five educative lectures/round tables on the topic of energy efficiency in five municipalities in the South Bačka district

Round tables/lectures were successfully realized on the premises of the municipalities of Bečej, Temerin, Žabalj, Bačka Palanka and Bački Petrovac. Round tables/lectures were held in October and November in cooperation with the South Bačka administrative district, local self-governments, Among-municipalities working group for environment protection and sustainable development and Faculty of technical sciences – Provincial centre for energy efficiency.

The round table/lecture in Bečej was held on Monday, the 19th of October 2009 in the Great room of the municipality of Bečej. Address: Trg Oslobođenja 2, Bečej. It started at 10 o’clock. Beside the head of South Bačka administrative district assistant, the meeting was also opened by the president of the municaplity of Knezi Peter. There were 16 participants from 12 different institutions and organizations from the territory of the municipality of Beočin.

The round table / lecture in Temerin was held on Friday, the 23rd of Ocober 2009 in the Great room of the municipality of Temerin, in 236 Novosadska Street in Temerin. It started at 10 o’clock. The meeting was opened by the head of the South Bačka administrative district Ms. Darija Šajin and the president of the municplaity of Temerin, Mr. Andraš Gustonj. The meeting gathered 20 participants from 11 different institutions and organizations from the territory of the municipality of Temerin.

The round table / lecture in Žabalj was held on Thursday, the 29th of October 2009 in the Great room of the municipality of Žabalj, in 45 Nikole Tesle Street in Žabalj. It started at 10 o’clock. The meeting was opened by the head of the South Bačka administrative district, Ms. Darija Šajin and the president of the municipality of Žabalj, Mr. Dragiša Đorđević. There were 31 participants from 7 different institutions and organizations from the territory of the municipality of Žabalj.

The round table / lecture in Bačka Palanka was held on Thursday, the 30th of October 2009 in the Great room of the municipality of Bačka Palanka, in 16 Kralja Petra Street, in Bačka Palanka. It started at 10 o’clock. The meeting was opened by the head of the South Bačka administrative district, Ms. Darija Šajin and the vice president of the municipality of Bačka Palanka, Ms. Desa Borjan. There were 21 participants from 16 different institutions and organizations from the territory of the municipality of Bačka Palanka.

The round table/lecture in Bački Petrovac was held on Monday, the 2nd of November 2009 in the Great room of the municipality of Bački Petrovac, in 6 Kolarova Street, in Bački Petrovac. It started at 10 o’clock. The meeting was opened by the head of the South Bačka administrative district, Ms. Darija Šajin and the president of the municipality of Bački Patrovac, Mr. Vladimir Turan. The meeting gathered 12 participants from 9 different institutions and organizations from the territory of Bački Petrovac.

The spokespersons on each round table/lecture were the representatives of the Provincial centre for energy efficiency, Mr. Damir Đaković and Mr. Miroslav Kljajić and the president of “Environment Engineering Group“, Mr. Igor Jezdimirović.

Program of lectures / round tables:

10:00–10:25 Welcome note and presentation of the project;

10:25–10:45 Lecture I – With energy efficiency towards sustainable development at local / global level;

10:45–11:05 Lecture II – Activities of local self-governments in regard with energy / energy efficiency;

11:05–11:30 Lecture III – The picture of energy in Europe/Serbia/Vojvodina;

11:30–12:00 Lecture IV – Examples of good practice for achieving energy efficiency at local level;

12:00–12:30 Conclusions / Discussion;

12:30–13:00 Cocktail;

During the round tables/lectures, all guests were given prepared material and books “Together Towards Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development“ that were printed within the project, as well as other promotional material of “Environment Engineering Group“.

A3 - Educative campaign about energy efficiency and alternative energy recourses

Since the repairs of the ship “Theatre“ were extended contrary to the plans and were slowed down due to the economic crises, the activities of the educative campaign on energy efficiency and alternative energy resources were redirected in order to achieve desired results in the new circumstances incurred. Due to this, activities at the festival of EXIT in 2009, precisely from the 9th until 12th of July 2009, were included in the educative campaign, as well as the activities from “Healthy Eco Corner at Štrand“, from July until September 2009. Beside this, we managed to provide additional means for organizing an art contest for elementary and secondary schools pupils. 1411 works, which were shown to the public at exhibition in the hall of the Government of Vojvodina, were received at the contest. The exhibition took place from the 16th until the 20th of November 2009. The project activities were also promoted at two international meetings, RES BOAT – travelling conference on energy efficiency and alternative energy recourses that took place on the river Danube from Wien to Belgrade from the 23th until 27th of March 2009 and at a scientific, expertise meeting “Protection and health on work and environment protection“ held in Banja Lucka from the 24the until the 26th of June 2009. In the work journal from this meeting, the results of the project “Energy Efficient Society, Our Aim“, were also published. This project was also realized with the support of the program SECTOR in 2007/2008.

Beside these activities, a series of texts was published within the educative campaign. 7 texts were published in magazine “Caffe Vojvodina“ and 3 texts were published in newspaper “Eco List“.

A4 – Lobbying for introducing stimulative measurs at local level for achieving better energy efficiency in households and greater use of alternative energy recorses

Within this activity, there were several meetings with representatives of the Among-municipality working group for environment protection and sustainable development in the South Bačka district – “MORG“. During the project and lobbying period, German organization for technical cooperation - “GTZ“ and the Organization for European cooperation and safeness – “OSCE“ were contacted. According to the developing methodology, from November until December, “OSCE“ supported five additional round tables/lectures in the towns of Niš, Kruševac, Sremska Mitrovica, Kragujevac and Gornji Milanovac. “OSCE“ also supported filming a documentary film on energy efficiency. “GTZ“ supported the work of “Environment Engineering Group“ and proposed training for the representatives of the Among-municipality working group for environment protection and sustainable development. The training focused on the waste management, but the topics of producing energy from waste and energy efficiency were also discussed. Although concrete measures for reducing energy efficiency were not introduced due to the economic crises and lack of means for introducing these measures, decision-makers’ conscious on possibilities offered by energy efficiency and necessity of introducing these measures in future was raised.