Education

3E – Education about the Energy Efficiency

In June 2024, we started a project cooperating with the Veolia Foundation. The project aims to increase knowledge about the energy efficiency of public buildings. This is the pilot edition, which will last until March 2025. The project is being implemented in partnership with the cities of Łódź and Poznań. The central part is a training program about building retrofit. The participants of the training had an opportunity to discuss with the multidisciplinary teams the energy renovation solutions for the selected buildings in Łódź and Poznań.

Project objective

The long-term aim is to improve public buildings’ energy efficiency and reduce their impact on the natural environment. One way to achieve this goal is to educate that:

  • energy renovation reduces the building’s climate impact, a key element in the EU’s agenda for climate neutrality;
  • it is wrong to limit the scope of energy renovation to covering the building with a thick layer of insulation without analysing the entire building and its surroundings. The thermal losses of an average building through the external walls are estimated at approximately 20–30% of the total energy losses. The remaining 70–80% escapes through an ineffective ventilation system, leaks in the windows and doors, uninsulated roofs, floors, and thermal bridges at the connections of various structural elements. Please read more about this topic in our guideline publication Renovation and retrofitting of old buildings in times of climate crisis;
  • there is a need to analyse before deciding on the scope and choice of energy renovation technology by conducting an energy audit and carbon footprint analysis;
  • it is essential to reduce the waste of construction materials;
  • the insulation systems based on natural materials are worth considering;
  • integration of renewable energy sources is a key element;
  • it is essential to secure energy-efficient building management.

We invited representatives from various city departments in Łódź and Poznań responsible for planning and executing energy renovations of public buildings to participate in the project.

The Veolia Foundation has allocated grants for the program’s partner cities, which can, for example, supplement the technical documentation of a building necessary to start planning its energy renovation.

The first steps in the project

We began the project by assessing the needs of the city departments responsible for the energy renovation of public buildings in Łódź and Poznań. This assessment allowed us to gain insight into the challenges faced by the city departments in energy renovation, the actions taken to improve energy efficiency, the most common practices of the building managers, and the knowledge gaps.

Our city partners selected two buildings in each city to serve as case studies for the training program participants. In Łodź, a school and a kindergarten were selected, while Poznań had two medical clinics. The building’s current conditions and technical documentation were investigated. As a result of this process, we invited experts from various fields to contribute to the training program. We outlined a training program that included webinars and workshops focused on energy renovation.

Working on real-life cases that need intervention is a training method developed by the Sendzimir Foundation. It provides the participants with the possibility to efficiently develop competencies that enable them to run similar projects in the future.

The training programme

We designed the training program for representatives of various city departments involved in the energy renovation of public buildings in Łódź and Poznań. Its goal was to assist them in making optimal decisions regarding the scope and solutions for energy renovation investments.

The first stage of the programme was five webinars that took place in October and November 2024.

During the first webinar, we learned how the cities of Łódź and Poznań work to improve building energy efficiency, and we outlined the legal framework for implementing energy renovation projects.

During the second webinar, we improved our skills in obtaining high-quality energy audits, a key document for increasing building energy efficiency.

The third webinar helped us understand the technologies that reduce building energy consumption. We were inspired by the presentation on the first hydrogen estate in Poland, being built in Śrem.

The fourth webinar introduced us to possible sources of financing for energy renovation projects, including Energy Efficiency Certificates.

The last webinar taught us how to make our renovated buildings more sustainable.

The webinar playlist is available in Polish:

The second stage of the programme was three-day workshops in Łódź (19-21 November 2024) and Poznań (2-4 December 2024). During the workshops, participants, experts from the Sendzimir Foundation, the Veolia Foundation, and external experts recommended solutions to improve energy efficiency in the case studies buildings. Participants developed an action plan for sustainable energy renovation of these buildings. We began each workshop with a site visit to case study buildings and ended with participants’ presentations and discussions.

Workshops in Łódź, photo: Magdalena Niezabitowska-Krogulec
Workshops in Łódź, photo: Magdalena Niezabitowska-Krogulec
Workshops in Poznań, photo: Magdalena Niezabitowska-Krogulec
Workshops in Poznań, photo: Magdalena Niezabitowska-Krogulec

We plan to summarise the results and lessons learnt from the energy renovation workshops in a report describing a set of recommendations and steps for implementing the proposed solutions.

Communication workshop, 4-5 March 2025, Warsaw

A complementary element of the program will be a workshop on communication and educational activities in the field of energy efficiency addressed to residents and users of public buildings. The workshop participants will be representatives of the office units dedicated to communicating with residents, public institutions involved in such educational activities (e.g. schools or community centres), local non-governmental organisations and the media. The workshop will result in specific plans for communication activities.

Duration of the project

June 2024 – March 2025

Organisers

Project coordinator at the Veolia Foundation: Monika Ustrzycka monika.ustrzycka@veolia.com

Project coordinator at the Sendzimir Foundation: Ewelina Pękała ewelina.pekala@sendzimir.org.pl

The Veolia Foundation Poland finances this project.

 

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