On 5 December 2017, a ceremonial opening of the Change the habits – equip the school, regional schools competition, was held in the Bosnian Cultural Centre (BKC) Tuzla.
The Prime Minister of the Tuzla Canton (TC) Mr Bego Gutić, two Assistant Ministers of the Brod-Posavina County (BPC) Mr Stjepan Bošnjaković and Mr Damir Mirković, project team members from the BPC and TC, media representatives, as well as the teams from all 105 schools that applied for this competition, including 81 TC schools (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and 24 BPC schools (Croatia) participated at this event.
The competition includes a total of 37 596 users of primary and high school buildings.
The organizers of the competition are the Centre for Development and Support (CRP) from Tuzla, Government of the Tuzla Canton, Brod-Posavina County, association Green Action from Zagreb and Brod Ecological Society (BED) from Slavonski Brod.
The goal of the competition is to promote energy efficiency and save energy and water without any additional investments, only by changing the behaviour of building users. The competition is implemented in the project region – Tuzla Canton and Brod-Posavina County.
All schools – applicants compete in one of the following categories: decrease of electricity consumption, decrease of water consumption, decrease of heating energy consumption. After a four-month competition, lasting from 1 December 2017 to 31 March 2018, two schools – winners shall be declared – one in the Tuzla Canton and the other in the Brod-Posavina County.
Each school winner shall be awarded with:
• photovoltaic system for electricity production;
• solar laboratory to be equipped in cooperation with pupils and school employees, providing many useful commodities for the school (e.g. solar tree, solar bench, solar grill, solar lamps, etc.)
The competition is organised within Innovative minds for smart schools or abbreviated SMART SCHOOLS, cross-border project. The project value is EUR 1.6 million funded within the Interreg IPA Cross-border Cooperation Programme Croatia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Montenegro 2014 – 2020.
