Cultivate A Culture Of Efficiency From An Early Age, 24 Elementary To High School Levels Participate In Energy Saving Competition

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) said there were 24 schools from various levels of education ranging from elementary, junior high, to high school participating in energy-saving competitions to foster a culture of energy efficiency and conservation from an early age.

The Head of the Bureau of Communication, Public Information Services, and Cooperation of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Agung Pribadi, said that the competition was part of a campaign to prepare human resources who care about energy conservation.

"We continue to build public awareness of the importance of an energy efficiency culture from an early age, so that we can form a generation that is aware of energy saving," Agung said as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, July 27.

Capacity building and awareness of the younger generation are expected to become active and knowledgeable supporters of energy efficiency and conservation.

The involvement of students is part of supporting the government for the promotion of renewable energy to contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Country Manager of the Energy Transition Partnership-United Nations Office Project Services (ETP-UNOPS) Aang Darmawan assessed that the energy-saving competition was in line with the Indonesian government's efforts to implement the energy transition.

"Energy efficiency is an important activity in the energy transition. For that, we really appreciate the collaboration with IIEE and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in this energy-saving campaign program for students, because it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions, thus helping to achieve the Paris Agreement targets," said Aang.

The implementation of the energy-saving competition itself is an activity initiated by the Indonesian Institute for Energy Economics (IEE) in collaboration with ETP-UNOPS to assist the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources program.

This year, IIEE assisted in awareness-raising activities for energy efficiency and conservation for eight elementary schools, eight junior high schools, and eight high schools in East Java, especially Surabaya.

In the implementation of the program, each school is represented by five students as Energy Saving Ambassadors (DHE) with one accompanying teacher as energy manager.

IIEE has conducted mentoring and evaluation three times, two in person and one online meeting.

Assistance carried out offline is expected to provide an overview of the implementation of the program in the field so that it can be carried out properly by the school.

During the competition period, participants were challenged to show the efforts and commitment of all elements of the school in implementing energy savings.

In addition, the students also participated in various activities, namely making videos, yells, articles, posters and photos with the theme of saving energy.

The creation of Energy Saving Ambassadors in each school is expected to be an inspiration and motivator for the school environment.

This was demonstrated by one of the DHEs when the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and IIEE team monitored directly in the field.

Ibrahim (11 years old), a student at SDN Dr Sutomo V/327 Surabaya revealed that the selection of DHE by school managers is determined based on energy-saving behavior habits in the classroom.

"I like to turn off the fan after class," said Ibrahim.

One of the actions taken by DHE at the school was to create an energy patrol activity.

"We are patrolling the rooms in the school, any (electronic devices) that can be turned off when not in use," said Ibrahim.

According to Ibrahim, the DHE SDN Dr Sutomo V team has been briefed by the energy manager before taking energy-saving actions.

The DHE team then mapped the locations of schools that were targeted for energy saving.

"We make plans (schools) and energy-saving plans. Usually, we gather first after school from 11:20 a.m. to 13.30 p.m.," he continued.

Ibrahim feels that his participation as part of the SDN DHE team is very useful as a capital to disseminate energy-saving information in schools.

"I'm happy, especially for the future (the school and me), we also have class 5 in the team as a continuation of the program at this school when we graduate," he said.