From the 22-25 of September 2009, the EESC's Section for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure organised an event centred around the 'Global Overshoot Day, the day of the year on which we as a global population start to use more ecological resources than the earth can produce in that year. This year Global Overshoot Day fell on the 25th of September, a reminder that today, we are ecologically overdrawn. It is imperative that society as a whole takes immediate action, not only to safeguard the environment and the economy of Europe and the rest of the world, but also to ensure the stability of our planet and to improve the wellbeing of mankind. The challenge facing us is to accelerate the transition towards a more energy efficient economy and thus reduce our carbon footprint.

Taking as a motto "Energy saving: everyone's concerned and everyone's responsible", the EESC initiated the Save it! Energy Saving Days as a major public event to bring together all sectors of civil society, from key decision-makers to members of the public, to explain in a fun and informative way what each and every one of us can do to combat wasteful behaviour.

Save it in the European media! – Read, watch and listen to articles

The Pallet House Concept

This public 4-day event was centred around a temporary sustainable building erected on Quai aux Briques (Sainte Catherine) in the heart of Brussels: the Pallet House, winner of the 2008 GAUDI European Student competition on sustainable architecture. The building, made entirely of recycled wooden pallets used previously in commercial storage activities, represents a perfect embodiment of the issues surrounding energy efficiency, energy innovation and employment and the role of energy policy in the economic recovery.

Pallet House - Video

Save it! Events

Along side a range of activities for members of the public, the Save it! event also included a number of debates and seminars focusing on energy efficiency and sustainable development, featuring both EESC members and representatives and experts from other organisations:

Wednesday 23/09 - EUROPEAN COMMISSION DG RTD Project: Civil Society Organisations for energy efficiency and sustainable transport
A workshop with an interactive panel discussion organised by the DG Research-funded project Civil Society Platform for Sustainable Consumption and Production (DelibProcessSCP), with Irini Ivoni Pari, Vice-president of the EESC for Communication, in attendance.

Thursday 24 / 09 – SYMPOSIUM: ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABILITY
A Symposium on Architecture and Sustainability co-organised with the Architects' Council of Europe and launch of the Declaration and Policy on Architecture and Sustainability.

Friday 25 / 09 –GLOBAL OVERSHOOT DAY EVENT
A roundtable debate focusing on the key role of energy efficiency in combating the ecological credit crunch.

The Activities

There were also a range of other activities for the public organised in and around the Pallet House over the 4 days of the event:

• Visit the Pallet House, winning project of the 2008 GAUDI European Student competition on sustainable architecture
• Find out what the EU is doing and speak with EESC members about energy efficiency
• Experience energy efficiency with hands-on experiments
• Discover ways to reduce their own energy consumption and write their ideas for action on our "Tree of Commitments"
• Learn about energy efficient technologies
• Mark the 2009 Overshoot Day on 25 September 2009 by coming to our event
• Take part in games and quizzes
• Watch live art performances

The Save it! event also reached out to the youngest members of society: school visits gave children the chance to get involved with energy saving, with a variety of discovery-based activities laid on especially for them.

Saving energy - it's up to you!

• Reducing energy consumption is one of the main goals of the European Union (EU)
• The EU has pledged to save 20% of annual consumption of primary energy by 2020 (compared to the energy consumption forecasts for 2020)
• Improving energy efficiency is important for competitiveness, security of supply and for meeting the commitments on climate change made under the Kyoto Protocol
• Energy efficiency is the most cost effective way to do so
• The EESC places strong emphasis on the important role of civil society for improving energy efficiency
• There is significant potential for reducing consumption
• All concerned, from laypersons to big corporations, can contribute greatly to energy savings

Find out how you can reduce your energy consumption

Complete programme for the four-day event


 

 

 

 

Learn more about EESC energy efficiency days!



 

Pictures of the event

'22/09/2009 - Launch event

24/09/2009 : A school visiting the Pallet house

The Venue

The events took place on Quai aux Briques (Sainte Catherine)

Organised by:

The EU advisory body, established by the Treaty of Rome, that represents civil society in EU decision making.

Partners:

DG COMMUNICATION, DG ENVIRONMENT, DG RESEARCH and DG ENERGY & TRANSPORT

Contacts:

For any questions and more information, please send an e-mail to:
OvershootDayEvent@eesc.europa.eu
or
Sven Dammann - Tel. 0032 (0) 2546 9366
Agota Bazsik - Tel. 0032 (0) 2546 8658
Ana-Cristina Costea - Tel. 0032 (0) 2546 8897
Emilie Dufaure de Lajarte - Tel. 0032 (0) 2546 9995
Denise Ivanovich - Tel. 0032 (0) 2546 8535