© Sundial project, Swedish team, Leif Wågman.

Sustainable use of energy in your everyday life

Teacher/facilitator notes:

This training module is intended to give the participants an opportunity to reflect upon their own use

of energy in their everyday life and upon the consequences of their choices to them personally, to

their local community and to the environment in general. This means that the guidance of the

participants through the exercise should be open-minded and open-ended, not pressing for definite

answers, but for ideas, thoughts and questions about how to learn more about the issues presented.

Some short remarks about the different stages of the exercise:

Stage 1. This stage is intended to raise the issues at hand. Answers to questions should ideally be

produced quickly and can be very short.

Stage 2. This stage is intended to promote a deeper exploration of selected subject areas or themes.

The participants may work with one or more of the themes, depending on time available and on

other specific circumstances. The participants may use and draw on own experiences or any other

information source available (books, web sites, etc) in producing their analyses. The facilitator’s role

should be to promote further understanding of the issues by helping the participant to ask further

questions.

Stage 3. This stage is intended to provide the participant with an opportunity to reflect upon the

answers produced in Stage 2 and their consequences. Ideally, the participant will expand their

analyses by asking more and deeper questions based on their own answers about their use of

energy. As in Stage 2, the participant may use any relevant information source, including their own

experiences, to further the analysis.

Stage 4. This stage is intended to provide the participant to take a (preliminary) stand about the need

for action, based on the participant’s answers to the questions in Stage 2 and 3. Ideally, the

participant will use the result of earlier stages as a basis for some kind of personal decision about

future action. The participant should not be forced into taking a specific standpoint, but feel free to

reach his or her own conclusions about the need for action.

Stage 5. This stage is intended to give the participant an opportunity to return to the initial overall

questions about sustainable development and to formulate a general stance towards these issues.

The stage should be used very open-mindedly, for the participant to be allowed to reach their own

conclusions.

At the end of the exercise some example links to information resources are given. These can be

added to or substituted freely in order to adapt the use of the exercise to the specific needs in the

situation in which it is used.

© Sundial project, Swedish team, Leif Wågman.

Sustainable use of energy in your everyday life

Grundtvig Project “Sundial” - Training Module “Energy”

Aims of the training module

The aims of this training module are to give you an opportunity to examine and to reflect upon

a) how much and what kind of energy you use in your daily life, b) the consequences of your choices, and c) possible ways of change.

Stage 1. Introduction – What does energy mean to you in your daily life?

Start by spending a short moment to think through how much energy and what kind of

energy you use in your daily life. Activity 1.1 Look at the picture above. What does it tell you about the use of energy in different

countries?

© Sundial project, Swedish team, Leif Wågman.

Activity 1.2 Do you think that you know enough about your own energy consumption?

- Give a short reason to your answer.

Activity 1.3 Do you think that the issues about how much energy and what kind of energy you use in

your daily life are important to you personally?

- Give a short reason to your answer.

Activity 1.4 Do you think that you would be able to change the amount or the kind of energy you use

in your daily life? Would you like to change it?

- Give a short reason to your answers.

Activity 1.5 What consequences do you think that your use of energy in daily life have to you

personally? What consequences do you think that it has for society in general? Do you think that

these consequences are positive or negative?

- Give a short reason to your answer.

Stage 2. Exploration

The following questions aims to a deeper description of the amount of and the kinds of energy you

use in your daily life. You can choose to work with only one, a few, or several of the activities 2.1 to

2.7 below.

Activity 2.1 Heating and/or cooling your house or apartment – how do you do it?

Questions: a. What does the picture tell you? b. Describe how you heat (or cool) your house or apartment? Why? c. Where does the energy come from? How is it produced? d. How much energy do you use for this purpose? Do you know? Can you find out? e. Are there alternatives? Can you heat (or cool) your house or apartment in another way? How?

© Sundial project, Swedish team, Leif Wågman.

Activity 2.2 Household electricity – for what and how much?

Questions: a. What does the picture tell you? b. Describe how you use household electricity? For what purposes? Why? c. Where does the energy (electrical power) come from? How is it produced? d. How much energy do you use for household electricity? Do you know? Can you find out? e. Are there alternatives? Can you do it in other ways? How?

Activity 2.3 Transports – where to and why?

Questions: a. What does the picture tell you? b. How do you get to the places you go to? Why do you go there? How often? c. Where does the energy for your transports come from? How is it produced? d. How much energy do you use for transports? Do you know? Can you find out? e. Are there alternatives? Can you arrange your transports in another way? How?

Activity 2.4 Food – what does it got to do with energy?

Questions: a. What does the picture tell you? b. What do you eat? How do you choose your food? Why do you choose food the way you do? c. What kind of energy is involved in the production and handling of the food you eat? How is it produced? d. How much energy are used in the production and handling of the food you eat? Do you know? Can you find out? e. Are there alternatives? Can you change the way you choose your food? How?

© Sundial project, Swedish team, Leif Wågman.

Activity 2.5 Clothes – what is the connection to energy?

Questions: a. What does the picture tell you? b. What kind of clothes do you wear? Why? Where are they produced? How? c. What kind of energy is involved in the production of the clothes you wear? Do you know? Can you find out? d. How much energy is used producing the clothes you wear? Do you know? Can you find out? e. Are there alternatives? Can you change the way you choose your clothes?

Activity 2.6 Things at home – too much use of energy?

Questions: a. What does the picture tell you? b. What kind of things do you have? Why do you have them? c. What kind of energy use is involved in usage of the things you have? Do you know? Can you find out? d. How much energy do the things you have and use demand? Do you know? Can you find out? e. Are there alternatives? Can you change something about the things that you have and use to use less energy or other kinds of energy?

Activity 2.7 Activities you take part in – what is the demand for energy?

Questions: a. What does the picture tell you? b. What kind of activities (e.g. recreational, vacations, etc) do you spend your time on? Why? c. What kind of energy is involved in these activities? Do you know? Can you find out? d. How much energy is used in these activities? Do you know? Can you find out? e. Are there alternatives? Can you change your activities in some way?

© Sundial project, Swedish team, Leif Wågman.

Stage 3. Analysis and reflection

Based on your answers to the questions under Stage 2, the aim of this stage is to outline possible

consequences of the amount of energy you use and the kind of energy you use.

Activity 3.1 Which kind of consequences can you see of the way you use energy for yourself? Try to

describe how the choices you make affect you in terms of, for example

- economic gains/costs - comfort - responsibility - social acceptance - other aspects

Activity 3.2 Which kind of consequences can you see of the way you use energy for your local

community? Try to describe how the choices you make affect your local community in terms of, for

example

- pollution - compliance to social norms - economic development - local environment - employment opportunities - other aspects

Activity 3.3 Which kind of consequences can you see of the way you use energy for the general

development of the planet? Try to describe how the choices you make affect the general

development of the planet in terms of, for example

- climate change - economical stability - international relations - other aspects Activity 3.4 Think again about the consequences of your choices. Do you think that the choices you

make contributes to a sustainable development of the world when looked at from

- a social perspective? - an economical perspective? - an environmental/ecological perspective?

Give reason/s for your answers.

© Sundial project, Swedish team, Leif Wågman.

Stage 4. The way forward

Activity 4.1 Do you think that you need to or ought to change the way you use energy in your daily

life in order to contribute to a long-term sustainable development of the world?

- Give a short reason for your answer.

Activity 4.2 Do you think that you would be able to change the way you use energy in your daily life

in order to contribute to a long-term sustainable development of the world?

- Which changes do you think are possible? - Which obstacles to change do you see?

Activity 4.3. Do you want to change the way you use energy in your daily life in order to contribute

to a long-term sustainable development of the world?

- Make a short list of things you would like to change.

- Make a short list of things you do not want to change.

- Give a short reason for your answer.

Stage 5. Rethinking the initial issues

Activity 5.1 Look at the picture above. What does the picture tell you about the use of energy in the

world today?

© Sundial project, Swedish team, Leif Wågman.

Activity 5.2 Look at the picture above. What kind of changes in the world would have to take place

for you to want to change the way you use energy?

Example resources

Here are just a couple of links to web sites that can be used to inform the work with the exercise.

They should be added to or substituted by others based on the specific needs in the learning

situation.

http://webbshop.cm.se/System/TemplateView.aspx?p=Energimyndigheten&view=default&cat=/Bro

schyrer&id=b4cea7b00212456b9bdbdbe47a009474

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_conservation

And more ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change

There is an abundance of information on the Internet about these issues. The above links are only

included here as a starting point and as examples. The participants should be encouraged to seek

other information sources of relevance to the issues at hand.