“Green School” of the NatureBeST project took place at the educational center “Urozero”
The next “Green School” for students of PetrSU and entrepreneurs of the tourism sector was held in the educational and health center “Urozero”.
The school was devoted to the application of green technologies for tourist accommodation in Finland and the Republic of Karelia and was held within the framework of the Karelia Cross-Border Cooperation Program KA5041 Green Technologies in Tourism to Reduce the Negative Impact on the Environment (NatureBeST).
More than forty participants took part in the School – students and teachers of the Institute of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Institute of Forestry, Mining and Construction Sciences , as well as representatives of travel companies.
Welcoming the participants, the head of the NatureBeST project Sergey Koshelev spoke about the project and the experience of using green technologies in Urozero as a pilot facility, after which the participants got acquainted on the territory of the educational and health center with already implemented green technical solutions, such as centralized electric heating systems in two cottages center, automated temperature control systems in several buildings, reconstructed cold water supply and sewerage systems, a roof of one of the cottages insulated with modern heat-insulating materials.
After a break, the audience gathered again in the recently renovated (also thanks to one of the projects of the Cross-Border Cooperation Program) conference hall of the center to take part in the second part of the School – a Karelian-Finnish webinar on the practical application of green technologies for tourist accommodation. Thanks to modern Internet technologies, the participants were able to see the presentations of Karelian and Finnish experts, accompanied by simultaneous translation. The webinar was moderated by Timo Hokkanen, a well-known Finnish expert on nature conservation.
The Finnish side was represented by representatives of the VisitKarelia tourist center, the University of Applied Sciences of North Karelia, an expert of the Innotek company. The topics of their speeches concerned the Finnish experience of using mini-hydro turbines, solar panels, water saving equipment, etc. for tourist accommodation facilities.
Among the Russian representatives who spoke at the webinar was an expert from the project partner ANO “Energy Efficiency Center” Alexander Berdino, who spoke about the experience of installing solar power plants, heat pumps and solar collectors at various facilities in the Republic of Karelia.
In the final part of the webinar, the participants were able to ask their questions to experts and share their impressions.
The school ended with the presentation of the publication “Ready-made solutions for tourism enterprises”, which was prepared within the framework of the NatureBeST project by the Finnish partners of the project and translated into Russian so that Karelian owners and managers of tourist accommodation facilities could take advantage of nature-saving and economically viable solutions already tested in practice for your business.