eceee should be a populated movement

eceee should be a popular movement. But we have to admit that we are not!

Now get this right. eceee is very popular on the arena. People talk about us, talk about the summer studies, read the papers, discuss the news, get directions from the web, get impulses and insights from the publications and so on. Without any doubt eceee is a force that is recognized and respected on the European and global energy scene. But eceee is not popular – i.e. populated in terms of number of members. And it is a shame!

We are continuously fed by political rhetoric about the importance of energy efficiency, but we are also almost every day disappointed by the poor implementation. We have to face the fact that the decision makers, be it the politicians or industrial leaders alike, do not trust us enough to do what we say. And who should be blamed for that? It could be convenient to blame them, but it would not be entirely fair. The truth is that we are not convincing enough! And in order to be so we have to be more active and we have to be more people convincing them.

We assume that you who have ever been to a summer study remember it with joy. The evaluations say so. But are you a member? You might be if you were to the latest because a pure CB-analysis showed you that the membership fee was paid off in a lower fee for the event. But still we only count 400 heads in our register of members. We could easily have been ten times more if we count all that has ever been to any of our events or have been in correspondence with us. And we should be!

Why!?

Because if we should ever persuade the leaders of this society to really act for a sustainable energy system, built on efficient use, we have to be there on their turf at all times reminding them and give them the courage and evidence they need. We have to be MANY to do that.
Because we need to have a strong economy to investigate the issues and to provide the facts and figures in convincing formats. To get a strong economy we need more members and more sponsors. We have to be MANY to achieve that.

And the good news is - we’re not only after your money. We also need in-kind contribution. We, the older generation, have successfully tried to increase our ecological footprint by using piles and piles of paper. Creating a successful summer study community is one of our achievements. In this day and age we have to increase our digital presence as well. Building a good digital social network is not our “thing”. We need you to contribute to the eceee website, face book, twitter etc.

And if those digital friends would become real live eceee members then we would be twice as happy.

So, why are you still looking at this screen? Go out there, join us & bring a friend.

The views expressed in this column are those of the columnist and do not necessarily reflect the views of eceee or any of its members.