The SAVES 2 energy saving project is made up of two complementary campaigns – Student Switch Off (SSO) and Student Switch Off + (SSO+). SSO is an engagement campaign taking place in university dormitories (halls of residence), whereas SSO+ engages with students in the private rented sector about smart meters and energy efficiency. The SSO campaign requires running a number of different fun engagement activities on campus, in addition to engagement through social media, therefore there is a dedicated team of Dormitory Coordinators to run these across Europe.
To ensure that we are all ready and excited to run the campaign at our participating universities, a training workshop for all SAVES 2 Dormitory Coordinators was held 23rd – 24th of August 2017 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The campaign takes place in the UK, Ireland, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Cyprus and Greece, therefore a total, eight Dormitory Coordinators came to the workshop – these included representatives from the National Union of Students (UK), Union of Students in Ireland, University of Sofia, University of Bucharest, University of Cyprus, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Technical University of Crete and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.
The two day event was held in a fun and quirky innovative space of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (LinkMenu fabrikas), with ample space to be creative and work in groups to discuss the different delivery aspects of the Student Switch Off campaign. Dormitory Coordinators exchanged experiences of running SSO (some did this as part of SAVES 1), talked about how the dormitories are set up in their countries, and how they might adapt the campaign to their context. As part of the training workshop, Dormitory Coordinators had the opportunity to visit the dormitories of the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, to see where the campaign runs in Lithuania.
Rachel Soper, the Dormitory Coordinator for the UK said: ‘ It was really interesting to hear about how dormitories are set up in other countries (e.g. living arrangements, communal space, duration of stay etc) and how SSO was adapted to their countries in SAVES 1. I look forward to sharing and exchanging ideas with the other Dormitory Coordinators over the duration of the SAVES 2 project!’.
We look forward to the campaign’s success across Europe, and the thousands of students we will get to meet 🙂
Article by Joanna Romanowicz, NUSUK & Saves Project Manager