Wrapping up for the summer in Sweden
Guest article by Agneta Mattiasson, Swedish country manager
The first year of Student Switch Off has come to an end. It’s been a year full of energy saving, as well as much learning and hard work. Besides for the raised awareness and changed energy behaviour among students we and others working with the project across Europe have also become more aware and learnt more about energy saving. This is of course in itself a fantastic aspect to the project. We believe it also makes it easier for us to further communicate energy saving to the students.
Since the competitions in Sweden ended for this academic year, we have been evaluating all parts of the campaign and the project. Evaluation within the Swedish project team has taken place, as well as evaluation with partners in Sweden, and across Europe. However we believe that the most important part of the evaluation process has been the one that has taken place together with the students. One part of the student evaluation were two focus groups held at the end of the term to get a deeper view of how students perceive the campaign and how it can be developed. This has been very helpful in our planning for the continuation of the campaign.
One change that we have made in order to get closer to the students taking part in the campaign, as well as to more easily communicate the campaign to students, is to move the role as dorm coordinator (project coordinator) out in the field. This means that two students living in the areas where we run the dorm competition will have this role. One student in Stockholm and one in Gothenburg will start in late summer/early fall. This way more time will be put on personal contact, in order to reach out to more students.
Before the start of the fall campaign we all, project team as well as students, will have a very well deserved summer holiday.
I would like to take the opportunity to give an energy saving tips for the summer. Sweden normally have enough water for us to consume, use at home, at work, in public spaces and so on. However there are many places around our globe where water is a scarce resource. Even though water consumption is not a part of the Student Switch Off campaing it doesn’t stop us from saving some. When you are hot and feel in need of a shower, enjoy a swim in the ocean our in of our beautiful lakes instead :-)
For some summer feeling, here´s a photo of the Swedish westcoast.
Have a great summer and see you in August!
