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Bulgarian pupils tackle the size of their footprint“Our school building is 108 years old,” says Nelly Vicheva, biology teacher at Secondary Schoolof Economics Rakovski, “and through our SPARE competition entry we wanted to explore costeffectiveways to reduce its energy consumption.” Neli and the pupils in the school eco-clubshe runs after hours took a step-by-step approach to tackling the size of their school’s carbonfootprint.First, they solicited advice from an externalexpert on the largest consumers of energyand the best means of cutting down theirconsumption. This helped defi ne prioritiesand pinpoint the right solutions.Their next step was to tackle the issueof funds. So, the pupils embarked on“Some people in our school and parentsdidn’t like to change their behaviour asfor them it is more comfortable to donothing for the environment instead ofgoing out of their comfort zone. It waschallenging to work in this situation.”Nelly Vicheva, teacher.fundraising actions such as paper and plastics collection and solicited donations from schoolauthorities and parents. This enabled the eco-club to replace incandescent lamps with energyefficient ones, set up motion sensor lighting and devices that turn off unused lights. They alsoinstalled software to switch off PCs automatically.“Stand-by devices waste 10 percent energy in a household,” explains Neli, “if all of Europedidn’t use stand-by, 10 percent energy would be saved and the environment would be cleaner.”Step three focused on changing the behaviour of fellow pupils and their families. The teamdeveloped leafl ets, a video and posters to encourage everyone in the school to do their bit.They also presented their work to other schools at a national eco fair to further extend theirmessage and learn from others.66