Birgitte B Petersen, Hørup Centralskole

A total of 41 teachers from 10 nations joined the course, which took place in Sønderborg, because one of the cases in this new learner's guide is based on examples from Sønderborg, Denmark.

One of the objectives of the Baltic Sea Project school network is to publish teaching material, and traditionally that material is written by experts from the various BSP-countries. Producing the Learner's Guides is a part of the network cooperation.
When a Guide is published, teachers are invited to participate in a course where the issues of the guide are outlined, places of interest are visited, and the contents of the Guide is explored.

Dybbøl-skolen
Included in this course was a visit to a school - Dybbøl-Skolen - where the Municipality of Sønderborg has demonstrated that investing in sustainable technologies in schools is a good place to start.
The recently constructed "green section" for the youngest classes is powered by solar panels, solar cells, a wind turbine, and a heat pump (energy from tubes under the play ground).
A screen in the building shows the actual power consumption and the power production.

Alsion and ProjectZero
The course started out with lectures in the Alsion complex. Here art, innovation, business, and higher education are under one roof.
The lecture by Mr. Peter Rathje, CEO of ProjectZero gave a fine introduction to the strategies which have produced projects like the one at Dybbøl-Skolen.
The project aims at transforming the Sønderborg area with its 77.000 citizens into a zero contributor of CO2 in 2029. Efficiency in energy consumption is a key factor.

Hands-on activities
Between the lectures, there were examples of using the Learner's Guide in a class, e.g. by measuring wind speed, temperature and altitude in various places and comparing the results. It was a rainy day, but nonetheless a welcome and inspirational activity.

Sønderborg and the climate
After a couple of inspirational days on how to teach urban ecology, the Municipality of Sønderborg invited the teachers to a presentation on the strategies and politics of energy consumption - leading to the goal - zero emission of CO2 in 2029.
Mr. Martin Sichlau-Pedersen from the Municipal Climate Change Committee,
had a very persuasive presentation on:
• Renovation of public buildings
• Energy-efficient buildings
• Green transportation
• Street lighting
• Consequences and adjustment
• Energy supply and carbon
• District heating supply
• Climate change adjustment program
• Education and behavior
• How to make people aware
• Carbon neutral strategies

Lack of awareness is a barrier
It is necessary to:
• increase knowledge within our administration
• increase knowledge among politicians
• increase knowledge in our business sector
• increase the knowledge of our citizens

Initiatives to provide knowledge:
• More than 100 of the service employees in the Municipality of Sønderborg have had 3½ days of special training on how to save energy
• Motivation to build low energy buildings through examples and guidelines
• Campaigns for employees on energy-efficient behavior
• Events for citizens to create focus on the climate challenges.

The house which produces energy
The zero+ house in Sonderbørg is the first family home in Denmark which produces more energy than it uses. The house is an example of projects supported by the Municipality.

The group also visited the solar panel field in Vollerup. The 9.000 m² of solar panels produce heating for 1000 homes.

The green school project
It was very interesting to see the green roofs of the upper secondary school, AGS, in Sønderborg. Students at the Gymnasium (high school) make several measurements related to the roof as a part of their projects. The root-zone ecosystem in the hallway of AGS is included in the students' measurements.
The results was enthusiastically presented by members of the school's newly formed "Eco Council".

Developing cooperation
In the evenings the participants shared examples of urban ecology projects.
Presentations from Poland, Estonia, Russia, Denmark, and Lithuania provided inspiration and a good background for the discussion of future projects.
The friendly atmosphere gave new energy to the school network. This mixture of experience and new ideas was an important result of the discussions.
The last evening diplomas for participation were presented in a very informal way. It was time to go home with new inspiration for teaching urban ecology in the classroom - and to pick up cooperation with the new network partners.

Read more: www.b-s-p.org; www.projectzero.dk; www.nts-centeret.dk