A systemic framework of energy efficiency in schools: experiences from six European countries.

Schools are complex physical and social institutions within national education systems. They account for significant energy consumption and like other buildings can demonstrate inefficient patterns of energy use. Poor energy performance of educational facilities is an intricate issue driven by complex causality of interconnected and dynamic factors. Addressing this issue requires a systemic approach, which is heretofore lacking. The aim of this research is to present and describe a systemic framework to facilitate energy reduction in schools across different European contexts. This transdisciplinary approach to sustainable energy use has been piloted in 13 post-primary schools located in six countries in northwest Europe. The research implements a series of planned activities and interventions, which help to unveil a systemic approach to improving energy efficiency in schools. The findings demonstrate how this approach, together with its ensuing methodologies and strategies, can contribute to reducing carbon emissions and improve knowledge and awareness around sustainable energy.

The influence of climatocultural background on outdoor thermal perception.

This study examines the extent to which people with different past thermal experience and "climatocultural" history systematically report different outdoor thermal sensations and thermal comfort patterns. After constructing two distinct climatocultural groups co-inhabiting the research setting (native Israelis vs. representatives of colder regions), and comparing their relative thermal preferences in both short-term and long-term observational experiments, we confirmed the existence of a strong correlation between affiliation to a certain climatocultural group and outdoor thermal sensation. It was shown that the degree of this correlation was not a constant value, and the strength of the difference in thermal sensation between different groups might change subject to different environmental conditions and possibly expectations. Under some environmental conditions, i.e., stressful but not extreme, the differences may be accentuated, while under others, i.e., either comfortable or extremely stressful, the scope of difference may diminish. Short-term acclimation may to some extent offset the differences between separate climatocultural groups. The study also showed that the meaning of the thermal comfort scale itself may be perceived unevenly between representatives of different groups.