Through the “Energy Underlined in Green” project, the Montenegrin Electricity Distribution System (CEDIS) aims to encourage young people to think green and share their experience with others in the community, said Executive Director Vladimir Čađenović.
Today, he presented cash vouchers to the winners of the “Energy Underlined in Green” competition.
“With this project, we wanted to give schools and the community as a whole a boost in their efforts to raise awareness among students, teachers and the public about the importance of the environment. The impressive number of schools that took part with their projects shows that we have more than succeeded in this,” Čađenović stated.
As he emphasized, CEDIS is determined to make managing environmental impacts an integral part of its business operations.
“In addition, with the ‘Energy Underlined in Green’ project, our company has also symbolically demonstrated its support for our country’s commitment and environmental path on the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Proclamation of Montenegro as an Ecological State,” Čađenović added.
As he noted, the aim is to use this project to encourage young people, who are the driving force behind all positive energy in society, to think green and share their experience with others in the community.
“In this way, we are building a powerful army of people who will preserve and protect our country’s natural wealth,” Čađenović said.
According to him, they expect to soon have the opportunity to see the completed projects, which will serve as examples and encouragement for others to work with even greater dedication and thoroughness on improving and developing ideas in the field of ecology, so that Montenegro will be an even more beautiful and safer place in which to pursue all personal and business goals.
The project “Construction of the First Solar Classroom”, prepared by the “Mirko Vešović” Secondary School of Economics (SSŠ) in Podgorica, won first place in the “Energy Underlined in Green” competition.
Second place went to the project “Eco Nursery”, submitted by the “Spasoje Raspopović” Secondary Vocational School in Podgorica, while third place went to the project “Outdoor Green Classroom – Eco Gumno”, submitted by the “Štampar Makarije” Primary School (OŠ) in Podgorica.
In addition, the committee, comprising Marija Jovović – CEDIS, Nevena Čabrilo – Bureau for Education, national coordinator for Montenegro for the International Eco-Schools Programme and committee member, Tatjana Zečević Miranović – CEDIS, Saša Karajović – NGO “EKOM” and member of the Environmental Protection Foundation, and Dušan Bugarin – Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, awarded two more excellent projects: “Eco Laboratory” by the “Vuk Karađžić” Primary School, Podgorica, and “The Schoolyard as an Outdoor Classroom” by the “Mihailo Žugić” Primary School, Odžak, Pljevlja.
The principal of the “Mirko Vešović” Secondary Vocational School, Dijana Vujačić, thanked CEDIS, a socially responsible company that recognized the importance of education for sustainable development, which the school has been implementing in detail for some time.
“Thanks to them, we now have the opportunity to build the first solar classroom in our schoolyard, where students and teachers will be able to raise environmental awareness in a modern setting,” Vujačić emphasized.
According to her, the project was prepared and written by the “Mirko Vešović” School Eco Club team, led by teachers.
“Through this project, we have made a contribution that will be reflected in the fact that we will save the electricity consumed by the school itself,” Vujačić said.
Deputy Principal of the “Spasoje Raspopović” Secondary Vocational School, Vesko Mihailović, thanked CEDIS for coming up with the idea of launching a competition for this project.
He noted that the school holds the Green Flag and has been declared an Eco-School.
“We entered the competition with the ‘Eco Greenhouse’ project, and I believe this competition will provide additional motivation for future projects, as well as encourage all employees to get involved in this project so that it can be implemented as successfully as possible,” Mihailović said.
According to him, the school’s environmental projects team had been working on writing and preparing this project since the beginning of the school year.
“I believe they have achieved a good result, as this award proves,” Mihailović observed.
The project coordinator at the “Štampar Makarije” Primary School, Rajna Ivanović, said that their “Outdoor Green Classroom – Eco Gumno” project aims to enable children to work outdoors.
“In this way, we want to show how much the environment contributes to better working conditions. We also want to show children how they should treat the environment,” Ivanović stated.
According to her, writing the project took about six months.
Ivanović thanked CEDIS for recognizing the potential of the schools’ ideas, which will enable children to be educated and develop environmental awareness.
Biljana Veličković from the “Vuk Karadžić” Primary School said that the idea behind their “Eco Laboratory” project is to improve the schoolyard, with the aim of making better use of the space.
As she explained, a team of teachers who run the school’s young scientists club took part in preparing the project.
“I would like to thank CEDIS for the opportunity to take part in this project, and I hope we will use the allocated funds effectively,” Veličković said.
The principal of the “Mihailo Žugić” Primary School in Pljevlja, Dušica Knežević, said that they are, above all, proud that as a small rural school they have “stood shoulder to shoulder with large urban schools” with a high-quality project developed by classroom teacher Matija Zorić, who is also the Eco-School coordinator.
“On this occasion, I would like to thank Zorić personally and on behalf of the school,” Knežević said.
The “Schoolyard as an Outdoor Classroom” project, she explained, will be implemented in the yard of the main school in Odžak and the satellite school in Borovica.
“By implementing the project, we plan to address some issues, namely putting part of the schoolyard, located behind the school and currently unusable, to use,” Knežević emphasized.
She added that she was grateful to CEDIS for the valuable award.
In cooperation with the Bureau for Education of Montenegro, which implements the International Eco-Schools Programme, CEDIS launched the “Energy Underlined in Green” competition for environmental protection projects on 20 September.
Educational institutions implementing the International Eco-Schools Programme, namely those holding the international Green Flag award, as well as institutions that had applied to pilot the Eco-Schools Programme, were eligible to participate. The prize fund amounted to EUR 15,000.
