Click on the front door and you can enter the house. Indoors, links lead to practical tips for how people can save energy and, in doing so, save money. Welcome to the digital eco-house, a project backed by the British Embassy in Kyiv, the singer Alyosha, financially supported by SCM Capital Management and TNK-BP, and implemented by our partner the Do Rechi social marketing bureau.
Anyone who has much contact with teenagers will know they’re all keen on saving energy, particularly their own (joke – Ed). But research shows that children and young people have immense potential to act as “change agents”, getting everyone, including families, to be more environmentally aware and to be alert to the challenges of global warming. The eco-house project is therefore aimed specifically at teenagers. It is backed up with a “teenergy tournament”, an online quiz to be launched on 12 March on www.teenergy.com.ua to test knowledge of energy efficiency measures, with cool prizes including e-books. You heard it here first.
These initiatives are the latest part of a programme of energy-saving promotions the embassy has been running in Ukraine, starting with our “Save Energy! Save Money! Win Prizes!” Campaign in October 2010. That produced the Brilliant Energy Saving Photography exhibition in February 2011. At the press conference to launch the digital eco-house, a journalist asked whether anyone actually planned to build an energy saving house in Ukraine. All ideas welcome.
