Volunteers from the Naturgy Foundation give awareness workshops on energy efficiency and responsible consumption to nearly 900 children

“To teach children about responsible habits for consuming energy, to make them aware of natural resource management, and to involve them, as the adults they’ll grow up to be, in important family decisions such as energy costs.” This is how one of the Naturgy Foundation’s volunteers, Rodrigo Figuerola, defines the initiative launched this year to raise awareness among young people of how to use energy responsibly.

Rodrigo Figuerola is one of 71 volunteers who in the last three months have participated in training workshops for children in Madrid and Barcelona, as part of two educational programmes designed by Naturgy Foundation. In total, 131 workshops have been given, like the one in which Rodrigo took part.

Nathalie López Vicente, who also took part in this volunteering, considers that “it is a necessary initiative for our young people; they are the future, and our duty is to teach them to be creative and innovative, to make them participants in the needs of the planet and to make them aware of sustainability.”

Awareness raising from experience

The collaboration with Cruz Roja Juventud has been carried out within the framework of its “Promotion of school success” programme, geared at children aged between 6 and 16 with social difficulties, with the aim of improving their academic performance. The content put together by the Naturgy Foundation and taught by the company’s volunteers covered what energy is and how and where it is used, good energy practices, energy efficiency and sustainability.

This initiative is part of the Naturgy Foundation’s framework collaboration agreement with Cruz Roja, which it has been working with for two years in the fight against energy poverty, through volunteer programmes, the Energy School and the Energy Rehabilitation Solidarity Fund.

The “Managing your energy” programme, carried out in collaboration with Fundación Junior Achievement, has reached eight educational centres. Through play, reflection and using the learning-by-doing methodology, students have analysed the need to make decisions about their own expenditure, emphasising their energy expenditure, the need for savings and responsible consumption.

As another volunteer, Raúl Millor, explains: “The boys and girls have learnt to differentiate between natural and economic resources; to prepare and manage a budget with their income and expenses, fixed and variable; to calculate savings and see that it is very important for unforeseen events; and they have been able to detect savings opportunities in electricity bills, depending on the different user profiles.”

According to the managing director of the Naturgy Foundation, María Eugenia Coronado, “programmes like this allow the Foundation to achieve a double objective: to make new generations aware of responsible energy consumption and to take advantage of the knowledge of the company’s employees to offer a service to society.”