RAISING AWARENESS ON ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND IMPROVEMENT THROUGH STUDENT PROJECTS: A CASE STUDY

Raising awareness on a certain topic or issue is vastly alleviated with a proliferation of the electronic media and consequently, fast information delivery. The experience shows, that this is the best and most compelling way to educate the general public. Within this paper we show how two student projects, employing various activities to raise awareness, influenced general public. We also present the benefits and negative effects of the campaigns and how they can be linked together to an interesting and educational real case scenario. Public knowledge on greening and its benefits, related to the climate changes were studied in Slovenia, with the emphasis on Savinja statistical region. We used surveys, pilot cases, organized public events and remote collaboration tools within this study. We observed lack of knowledge and experience with greening principles among general public. However, good communication skills, networking and attractive sustainable solutions have led to an increase of greening awareness. Our case study gives examples on possible approaches in the frame of climate changes prevention and is encouraging future student projects. We summarized solutions and developed appropriate tools to implement them in order to effectively and efficiently raise public awareness on sustainable integration development and greening.