Young Ukrainians have launched an energy saving campaign

The State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine in cooperation with the EU Delegation to Ukraine presented awards to the winners of the All-Ukrainian University Students’ Creative Competition “Posters against Energy Waste.” The competition was attended by over 80 students from many Ukrainian cities. The winning projects will form the basis for public interest advertisements aimed at promoting high standards of responsible energy consumption. The winning projects’ invariable originality deeply impressed the competition jury. The students approached the energy saving issue creatively.

Oksana Pleten, a student of the Ukrainian Academy of Printing and a winner of the competition, said she had been inspired by mounting utility bills and persistent complaints of parents and friends regarding high energy expenses of Ukrainian households. The author of Do Not Devour poster believes that all problems plaguing our everyday life are caused by our unwillingness to eliminate unnecessary energy consumption. “I had never before addressed this theme and used this format. The poster calls for more than just fine drawing technique, as it needs the creator to put their own emotions and whole soul in the project,” she remarked.

Another finalist, a student of Lutsk National University Oleksandr Lelet, is sure that if people changed their attitudes towards energy saving, they would save up to 80 percent on electricity bills.

The winners, as determined by the jury, included also a student of the Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design Yevhenia Hniedash with her Warm Words Cannot Heat Your Home project and a student of the National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” (NTUU KPI) Fedir Tkachenko with his poster Throwing Money to the Winds, while audience choice awards went to Andrii Zhezherun of the National Aviation University, Anna Onyshchenko from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture and Kyrylo Orobchenko of the NTUU KPI.

“We were surprised by the students’ deep understanding of the theme. I am confident that the participants will always save energy when accessing energy resources, while their works will cause every viewer to take note,” the state agency’s chairman Mykola Pashkevych commented after the competition had finished.

“Our main task is to encourage young people to think about energy efficiency, to understand that every wasted kilowatt means natural resources spent in vain and environmental damage. When our children will have learned to think about it, then this campaign will bring a positive effect,” the president of the Kyiv International Energy Club Q-Club Oleksandr Todiichuk said.

According to the Sector Manager for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Gabriel Blanc, France holds similar contests, too, but the French pay much more attention to energy efficiency. In his opinion, Ukraine has all prerequisites for becoming an energy efficient nation, despite the fact that the levels of energy efficiency in Ukraine are currently far lower than in the EU.