European Energy Award Comes To Ireland

An Irish student has won the prestigious European Energy Savings Award.

Karimah Gambo - a transition year student at St. Joseph's College, Lucan, Co Dublin - was presented with the accolade in early November in Trieste, Italy, by Fabio Tomasi, Head of International Project, AREA Science Park.

She scooped the award based on her submission to the recent national competition in Ireland in the category of Multimedia.

Karimah's multimedia project, an original rap video creation, presents energy saving ideas that relate to daily activities.

Her submission was selected from all the European award winners in the Multimedia category in participating countries.

The energy saving techniques and options are presented in an engaging and interesting manner and encourage younger people to consider the impact of energy saving, said the judges.

Earlier, Karimah had been presented with her national award by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O'Keeffe, at a ceremony in Cork Institute of Technology in October.

European Energy Saving Award (EESA) is part of the Intelligent Use of Energy in Schools (IUSES) project.

The award and recognises schools and students that are enthusiastic and active in bringing about reduced energy consumption and who can demonstrate how simple changes can make a difference.

The IUSES 2009/10 project is an educational programme that aims to show secondary school students the basic principles of energy efficiency and give a comprehensive guide to saving energy in their everyday lives via an interactive educational and experimental programme.

In Ireland, the IUSES project and EESA competition are coordinated by the Clean Technology Centre at Cork Institute of Technology, in association with the Intelligent Energy Europe programme and Sustainable Energy Europe and sponsored by Bord Gáis.

In congratulating Karimah Gambo, Noel Duffy, Clean Technology Centre, CIT and Programme Coordinator in Ireland said: "We are delighted the Irish entry has come first in Europe in this competition. Karimah has shown it is possible to combine a technical issue with modern communication media to achieve a needed goal. Energy management is an important issue, linked as it is with climate change.

"We must take the needed steps now if we are to secure a quality of life in the future. The mistakes of the past and present will place a burden on future generations and it is right that students like Karimah should show us the way forward."

John Mullins, Bord Gáis Chief Executive Officer, commented: "In promoting and encouraging energy efficiency at all levels, Bord Gáis is delighted to support an initiative which acts as a vehicle to encourage energy awareness in energy consumers and gets our generations of the future focused on such an important issue.

"Karimah connects with her peers in delivering such an important message through the concept of rap music which is interesting, age appropriate and respected by the target audience – the younger generation.

"We thank Karimah for expertly delivering this message and for representing EESA, her country and the issue of energy efficiency engagement on the EU educational programme stage. Well done Karimah."

Details of all winning submissions at the EESA ceremony in Trieste are available on www.iuses.eu.

(GK