Involvement is rewarded. University of Bucharest, on the stage of the “Sustainable Development Gala” 2021 with SAVES2 project

The University of Bucharest won, during the Sustainable Development Gala 2021, with SAVES2 project, the prize in the category Universities and Research Institutes.

Organized by the Department for Sustainable Development, the 2021 edition was presented by journalist Mihai Rădulescu and broadcast on Sunday, January 2, 2022, on TVR 1. The awards were granted to the winners by László Borbély, State Counselor and coordinator of the Department for Sustainable Development.

The Sustainable Development Gala is part of a program designed to inform and educate the public about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals included in Romania’s National Strategy for Sustainable Development – Agenda 2030, a strategy in coordination with the European Union and the UN.

Coordinated at institutional level by Professor Magdalena Iordache-Platis, PhD, Vice-Rector of the University of Bucharest for quality management, social responsibility and relationship with social partners, SAVES2 project – Students Achieving Valuable Energy Savings is distinguished not only by the topic, but also by the interactivity of activities in the academic community, which included workshops, presentations and competitions, held both offline and online.

“It is an honor for the University of Bucharest to receive this award, which represents for us both a recognition of the efforts that UB has made in the direction of sustainable development, and an appreciation of our institution as an active university, involved in achieving Sustainable Development Goals. SAVES2 was launched in 2017 and coordinated by the National Union of Students in the UK. We consider it a successful project because although it was recently completed, it continues through many activities in which students are still involved, and this is seen not only in the reduction of energy consumption, but also in the new, sustainable way of life adopted by UB students”, stated Professor Magdalena Iordache-Platis, PhD.

The University of Bucharest was represented at the event by Larisa Pirvan, public relations specialist in the Department of Communication and Public Relations, who welcomed the initiative of the Department for Sustainable Development to organize the Gala and to award the “champions of education for 2021 in the field of sustainable development”.

Selected following a competition organized by the Department for Sustainable Development of the Romanian Government, the winning educational projects were submitted by various organizations (schools, universities, NGOs, town halls and companies) that support the principles of sustainable development and apply them in daily life. The winners were selected following a competition to which more than 150 organizations registered, of which 132 were considered eligible and evaluated by the jury.

The members of the jury of the competition were:  Bogdan Voicu, researcher at the Institute for Research on Quality of Life (ICCV) of the Romanian Academy and lecturer at “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, sociologist with extensive experience in education and community values, Cosmin Mălureanu, coordinator Ascendia SA, an innovative company in the field of e-learning and educational design, a catalyst for the development of educational content with the involvement of professors through the Livresq platform, as well as a representative of the Department for Sustainable Development.

About SAVES2, the project that brought the University of Bucharest on the stage of the “Gala of Sustainable Development” 2021

An extension of the SAVES – Students Achieving Valuable Energy Savings project, which ran the Student Switch Off campaign, SAVES2 aims to change sustainable energy behaviors among more than 219,000 students in 7 different countries in order to promote energy waste reduction.

With a duration of 42 months, starting with May 2017, the main objective of SAVES2 project was to make students aware of the benefits of intelligent electricity metering systems, so that they can control its consumption, especially after the study hours, when they are individual users.

The program included two major groups: students who received accommodation in university dormitories, an energy-saving competition called Student Switch Off (SSO) and students who lived in the private houses (rent), entitled Student Switch Off + . The consortium implementing the activities includes 11 partners from 8 countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Romania and the United Kingdom.

More information on the Students Achieving Valuable Energy Savings project can be found here, as well as on Facebook and Instagram pages.