Green Campus: Partnership to Advance Energy Efficiency at U.S., Ukraine Universities

March 22, 2011 — On the surface, they are an unlikely pair: Kimberly Lam, a junior at UC Berkeley, and Vitaliy Soloviy, who lives half the world away in Lviv, Ukraine. But they have one thing in common: they are both students of energy efficiency. Lam, an environmental science major, participates with the award-winning Green Campus Program that has been saving energy on 16 campuses in California since 2004; Soloviy, a student at the Ukranian National Forestry University, is a member of the 18-month-old Ukraine Energy Efficient Campus Program (EECP), which trains students to lead energy-saving projects at their universities.

With their shared commitment to energy efficiency, these students – and others like them – are now collaborating over the Internet on projects to save energy on both of their campuses. The effort is part of a new partnership between the Alliance’s California-based and Ukraine-based campus programs.

Bringing Green Students Together Across Continents

Given Green Campus’ success in saving energy on college campuses – and the potential for student-driven energy efficiency to ripple throughout the Ukrainian economy – the Alliance’s Ukraine office teamed up with Green Campus in fall 2010 to launch a sister program in Ukraine. To foster information sharing, earlier this year EECP paired its three Ukrainian campuses with three Green Campuses in California: UC Berkeley with the Ukrainian National Forestry University; UCLA with Khmelnitskiy National University; and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with Poltava University.

“We’re confident that the sister campus component of the EECP/Green Campus Program will cultivate cultural understanding and more effective projects on campuses in the United States and Ukraine,” said Alliance Vice President of Education Merrilee Harrigan. “The partnership promotes the goals of both programs, particularly campus projects that save energy and prepares students for careers in energy efficiency.”

Creating a Framework for Efficiency

Students already are sharing their energy efficient project best practices. For instance, on Feb. 28, Lam and two other Green Campus students from UC Berkeley used Skype, a video conference tool, with Soloviy and three fellow EECP students from the Ukrainian National Forestry University. During their video conference, the Green Campus students shared the secrets of their success in publicizing residence hall energy competitions and financing energy efficiency projects. The EECP students now are looking for ways of introducing UC Berkeley’s ideas into their own universities.

The next step will be a Facebook discussion forum for the sister universities on campus energy efficiency projects.

For more information

To learn more about the Alliance’s education efforts in the Ukraine, check out our article about the Green Schools Program’s Ukraine collaboration.