The closure of EduFootprint PLUS

Today we are closing our 18 months long project, that was implemented under Interreg MED Programme, co-financed by the  European Regional Development Fund, and implemented in the cooperation with pur project partners:

Institute for Innovation and Development of University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Ambiente Italia srl, Italy

Local Energy Agency of Gorenjska, Slovenia

CONSORTIUM OLTREPÓ MANTOVANO, Italy

Regional Energy Agency North, Croatia.

The main aim of the project was to enhance the capacity of public authorities to calculate environmental footprint of activities in its buildings. This was done by using simplified life cycle approach identifying significant impact areas, and then improve users’ behaviours to reduce the overall footprint, through the transferring and capitalisation of EduFootprint project’s final products: calculator and APP.

REIC was responsible for fostering of EduFootprint methodology and approach at regional level, to cover territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania, engaging APs from each country: Sarajevo Economic Region Development Agency SERDA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, City of Mostar from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Municipality of Tirana from Albania, Old Royal Capital Cetinje from Montenegro. REIC organized webinars for APs in order to promote the project, to present the methodology and tools and foster its application at regional level. APs were involved in Final Conference in Italy, declaring the support to EduFootprint project through MoU signatory.

Not only the APS from region were involved in the project activities implementation, but the preliminary analyses of receivers’ contests and needs included survey which has been conducted in BiH, Montenegro and Albania, thus providing data to cover larger territory.

Institute of Blood Transfusion Sarajevo was the pilot building for testing the tools and applying the methodology. After the data collection, the calculator was completed; based on the results and in cooperation with the Institute representative the Improvement plan was produced. The complete methodology and the results of tools application were shared during the final conference in Mantova and final project presentation in Sarajevo, in June 2022.The representatives of the pilot building has been participating in the event in Sarajevo and further steps, after project closure has been agreed.  

In order to involve larger audience, all material produced during the project: calculator, app, improvement plan, edu-kit, 15 video pills and 4 webinars, were translated to Bosnian and distributed among the audience. It will be also available through REIC pages. Considering the fact that REIC is educational and informational center, which organizes events and summer-schools tackling the same issues, we see a lot of opportunities to share the project results and introduce the tools to wider audience in future.

The final project presentation event, held in Sarajevo on June 10^th 2022, was organized additionally to involve larger audience, targeting at public institution representatives, dealing with a building’s efficiency and footprint. The event attended representatives of 17 institutions, and resulted in arrangement of future presentation of the project within the institutions and potential future cooperation. The participation of the PPs in the event added a special significance.

REIC will continue to work on fostering the EduFootprint approach and methodology even beyond the end of the project, since it will contribute to our mission and promotion of good practices in the field of sustainable development.

On this occasion, we would like to thank to Interreg MED to make it possible, to all of our project partners for excellent cooperation during this challenging period, to all of associated project partners for the support their provided, as well as to all of the public and local authorities that took a part in the project.