Abstract
Human has always searched for higher living standards and greater power. Higher energy consumption, conversion, quality and efficiency have greatly served for the purpose with some consequences. Yet, the energy crisis in 1970s forced countries to take more imposing and complicated measures for energy saving and efficiency. For instance, the European Union set forward the 2010 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive legislation to lessen building energy consumption. The International Energy Agency (IEA) proposed its ‘25 Energy Efficiency Policy Recommendations’ in 2008 to save energy and to reduce annual CO2 emissions. Education and energy are two key concepts in people’s life. As schools play a significant role in education, they can play a similar role in energy consumption and education. Millions of students are enrolled in pre-primary, primary and secondary education around the world every year and countries spend significant amount of their GDP on education. It provides great opportunities to governments and schools to reduce energy consumption, save environment, and teach future generations the importance of building/following policies and standards through education as energy policy and education in schools have become an applying issue in today’s world and for the future. The aim of this article is to emphasize the importance of energy users’ behavior, school energy education and policies as building and implementing a school energy policy with the help of energy education and (inter)national standards can pay off not only within school areas but also nation-wide in the long run. Additionally, this article provides step-by-step energy policy guidance with a sample primary school energy policy for schools from the beginning and recommendations to raise school members’ energy awareness. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2016.v6n2p183
Highlights
Human has always searched for higher living standards and greater power
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) explain that “The opportunities for realizing these energy efficiency savings are distributed throughout many end-uses, from manufacturing systems to transportation choices to home appliances
Federal policies that promote efficient investment in each sector and end-use are critical to tackling climate change, economic development, and job creation” (American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, 2015)
Summary
Energy policy is a means of determining how energy will be produced, contributed and consumed. It is derived from energy conservation guidelines, public concerns, state legislation, taxation, international agreements, environmental issues and investment encouragement. The 1998’s action plan recommended the Union Members 1% additional energy efficiency improvement higher than expectations. The leaders of the Union agreed in March 2007 to reduce the EU’s projected energy consumption by 20 % by 2020. Ministries related to energy and education, and schools are to find means of increasing energy efficiency/performance and reducing energy use and costs. Lane et al (2014) recommend a school energy policy and energy education as two basic precautions for energy efficiency in schools. One of the reasons behind those failures is unforeseen energy users’ behavior and lack of energy education as it is people who use energy in real life not the policy makers or managers
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