At present, energy conservation campaigns provide households with a general awareness but do not provoke large scale behavior changes. The main goal of the STEP_BY_STEP is to maximize the number of households in a given area that significantly change their behaviour at home. Desired behaviour change includes reduced electricity consumption and the investment in energy efficient products and/or high quality renewable energy products. Communication strategies involving direct contact are typically more effective on behavioural change than mass media campaigns. Thus, a system will be put into place to make individual door-to-door contact with 80% of the households in a given area. Contrary to traditional door-to-door canvassing, often seen as a one-shot deal, our project solicits targeted households regularly through email or by phone and accompanies them over a 20 month period towards the adoption of energy-saving practices. To reduce the attitude-behaviour gap, our system uses proven communication techniques that push towards action. Households are regularly encouraged to try new ecological gestures adapted to their level of motivation. Feedback is given and social norms are used. Community-based social marketing strategies will be used to encourage energy-related investment decisions. Households likely to take individual investment decisions will be motivated to take such decisions benefiting from economies of scale and facilitated by other households’ experience. Institutional partners will launch their energy saving interventions amongst 9000 households in 4 European areas that represent diverse populations and communities. French SME E3D will provide a behavioral strategy along with a web based system for behavioral change developed within a research project. Partnered laboratories will analyze household energy saving behavior patterns based on profiles and will define the environmental and economic impact of the project. Power Link will ensure the dissemination.

"The sem@schools.eu project aims to promote the orientation of young people through an academic apprenticeship able to put the young learners involved in a position to increase their skills and to make them aware of the employment opportunities related to the energy sector . The aim of the project is therefore to raise the awareness of educational bodies on the themes of the green economy and to train young people from different European countries on the new professional profiles related to the energy in the building sector in a European vision . The partnership integrates operators in the field of training and the European energy sector, as well as from 80 VET schools where 1500 students will be directly involved in the activities students and 10,000 others informed. Target population are young people between 16 and 18 years , the schools, the institutions responsible for the management of educational / training interventions, economic operators in the energy sector.The objective of the proposed action is to improve the energy performance of school buildings in Europe , demonstrating concretely how you can get significant results in terms of reduction of CO2 emission starting from schools, associating it with a curricular growth of the young people involved. Therefore, in line with European initiatives on Open Education and New Skills for New Jobs, the actions of the project sem@schools.eu clearly respond to two specific objectives of the Erasmus program + in the field of education and training :1 ) the enhancement of transversal key skills critical to the marketability of the vocational training courses in the world of work2 ) innovation of training courses in a complementary way with policy reforms implemented at national level in order to modernize the VET systemsThe project intends to achieve three different levels of results that will affect the participants and the different actors involved :Behavioral improvements- Gain awareness of the energy problem , with particular attention to the rational use of energy- Be able to change their attitudes and habits towards the use of various forms of energy- Gain awareness of the problem of protecting the environment and better lifestyles through the transfer of experience to their families Improvement of specific knowledge in the field of energy and energy efficiency in buildings- Acquire knowledge of traditional and renewable energy , energy-environment issues, energy requirements- Know how to prepare an energy analysis and an Plan for the energetic improvement of the buildings, through the study of new technologies and innovation in the sector.- Know how to use computer technologyImproving the capacity of vocational guidance- Know how to connect the current energy and environmental issues to trasforming political sets, with socio-economic scenarios and scientific-technological progress- Raise awareness among students of higher secondary institutes on ""green jobs"" and career opportunities directly or indirectly related to the development of the Green Economy (renewable energy and energy saving)The overall architecture of the project has been designed in such a way as to ensure that testing is not mere application by recipients of their proposed model , but necessarily imply their involvement in the co-production of outcomes and expected results. This imprinting substantiates the sustainability of results and products beyond the expiry date of the project, as it lays the groundwork for the full implementation, within the systems and target organisms, of a set of issues identified as good practices. For this reason the project is configured itself as an exploitation action, because not only tends to disseminate tools and methods but to acquire and internalize, by the contexts of arrival, substantive elements of change, with the objective of impacting on the demand of services from user -beneficiaries with relevance and efficiency."