The Institute for University Cooperation (lCU), Lead Beneficiary of ESMES project, together with the Alcamo Municipality, Italian partner of the project, organized its final international event entitled "The journey of schools in the energy-saving practices", on the 23rd of May 2023 in Alcamo, Sicily, Italy.

The final event has been organized at the Istituto Comprensivo S. Bagolino School (TP), one of the schools that have benefited from ESMES activities; the students from several schools of the Alcamo Municipality joined the event and listen carefully to the presentations of the speakers. This choice has been made to allow a higher number of pupils to be engaged with the awareness activities of the project. 

The event was kicked off by the President of the City Council, Mr. Saverio Messana, the Director of Bagolino school, Mr. Antonino Provenza, the Assessor for investments, public works, maintenance services and management of school services assets, Mr. Mario Viviano, a representative from the ENI CBC MED program, Mr. Alejandro Lafarga Martinez and ICU Director, Mr. Daniele Bonetti. 

Mr. Fadi Karam, from the Joint Technical Secretariat of the ENI CBC MED program, joined the event remotely to present the indicators of the ESMES project. Subsequently, the ESMES project coordinator, Mrs. Giulia Scichilone presented the "The result of cross-border cooperation", to explain to the audience the characteristics and added value of the program. 

ESMES partners from the involved countries (Jordan, Spain, Tunisia, Lebanon, Italy) shared their experience in implementing the energy rehabilitations and described to the public the peculiarities of their intervention,considering public schools with standard loads and non-standard loads: 4 schools in Jordan, 9 in Lebanon, 2 in Spain and 12 in Tunisia are benefitting from the energy rehabilitation, either receiving the installation of renewable energy (photovoltaic systems) or energy efficiency measures, or both. In addition, thanks to awareness raising and training activities, students, and teachers of 35 schools have increased their knowledge on energy savings.

In particular, the Italian and Alcamo Municipality experience in energy practices have been discussed and presented on the side lines of the event; the “National Energy Framework” has been presented by ICU's energy expert, Mr. Maurizio Casarci; the "Good Energy Practices of the Municipality of Alcamo" by the Councilor for Financial Planning, Mr. Vittorio Ferro; the "Contest, School Pact and energy efficiency actions" by the Head of Directorate, Mr. Enrico Minafra. To close the event, the director of the school brought the guests to visit the rest of the Bagolino Institute.

The event has been a success, involving more than 100 participant, from partner institutions to public institutions, civil society and students from the schools.

It has been a great opportunity to boost and promote the ESMES network, allowing the in-presence exchange in terms of cross border cooperation, considering the amount of new connections between foreign institutions.