September. Back to school, after the wonderful holiday, fully of travel and gain of new experiences…
All of us are hoping the school will not be disrupted by events like the pandemic in the last two school years. We are wanting to go in the classrooms, having group activities and many trips. Looking at the two previous years, the online courses have reduced the operating costs of many schools, relaxing budgetary constraints. Now energy consumption will return to the pre-pandemic level, but the energy crisis has largely increased the operating costs of schools, putting enormous pressure on the regularly budgets. Certainly, the national and local authorities will make efforts to find appropriate resources, but the situation remains extremely difficult.
In these conditions, the reflection process on the wise use of the resources can be more effective. Most of the students and citizens can easily now understand the impact of reducing unnecessary lighting, changing habits regarding exaggerated comfort, reducing water consumption, generating less waste. Very simple things, easy to be implemented, multiplied at the community level, can help us. Perhaps this unexpected increase of the prices of the energy, services, and goods is acting as a feed-back from the Earth to slow down our tendency to consume more and more. To be happy due to the immediate comfort may have long-term negative effects. And the impact of this lack of wisdom will be on the whole society, such as tomorrow we will live worse than today. Synchronized actions are needed to be able to overcome the difficulties. The simple idea to smooth the peak of energy consumption cannot be implemented without a great awareness at the level of all consumers, and a high synchronization. The school can show us the way, through the education. And by practical examples having potential to be multiplied by transferring them to parents, to the relatives, friends, and whole society.
Will the next school year be difficult for the school management? Probably yes. However, the existing challenges can stimulate the educational staff and students to find valuable approaches to change the way we interact with the environment. We can learn enormously from the mistakes we made, and from the crises we went through.
