The first phase of the campaign Targets One Hundred and Fifty Thousand in Five Cities
Dr. Suwaiyel Inaugurated Activities of the Energy Rationalization Awareness Campaign Directed to Primary Grades Students

Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel, KACST President and Chairman of the Management Committee of the Saudi Center for Energy Efficiency (SCEE), inaugurated today morning in KACST headquarters activities of the awareness campaign for rationalizing energy consumption directed to students of primary grades in a number of public schools in Riyadh Province and the Eastern Province.
Dr. Al-Suwaiyel emphasized the keen interest of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, his kind care for awareness issues on various occasions, sincere call to energize awareness campaigns, following up these campaign and personal convention of their importance. Dr. Al-Suwaiyel expressed his hope for this campaign to achieve its targeted objectives and permeate all parts of the kingdom.
Dr. Al-Suwaiyel highlighted that levels of electricity consumption in the kingdom are considered very high and rapidly accelerating, consequently awareness campaigns gain more importance due to their effective role in the optimum rationalization of energy sources in response to the call of our religion. He also pinpointed that the rational use of energy leads by its turn to saving natural resources such as petroleum and gas and not to mention the huge financial returns.
Then,   chairman of the Management Committee of the Saudi Center for Energy Efficiency launched the site of the campaign entitled “Together to Save Energy” inaugurating the campaign activities.
Dr. Naif Mohamed Al-Abbadi, SCEE General Manager, high ranking officials in education directorate in Riyadh, Alkharaj and the Eastern Province besides reporters of the local media took part in the inauguration ceremony.
Dr. Al-Abbadi highlighted that the campaign aims, in general, to instill the concept of rationalizing using energy in a way that can  be reflected on the students’ conducts then their behavior besides involving them in spreading the culture of rationalization, and activating the role of schools in enlightening  students about ways to rationalize using energy.
Dr. Al-Abbadi said that the campaign, in its early stage, targets a hundred and fifty thousand students from age-segments from 6 to 12 years, in five cities, including Riyadh and Al Kharj, Al Khobar, Dammam and Jubail, where schools participating in the campaign, have been specified in coordination with concerned education directorates, pointing out that this campaign will be carried out in all schools in the Kingdom starting from the second academic semester.
Dr. Al-Abbadi pointed that three workshops were held during the month of September in Riyadh, Al-Kharj and Dammam in collaboration with participating schools and high-ranking official in the concerned educational directorates adding that these workshops targeted identifying mechanism of carrying out the campaign and the action plan for the next phase.
 SCEE Director General highlighted that the SCEE was keen to present a good number of thrilling teaching aids that were mainly directed to children with a five-minute cartoon film coming on the top whose theme tackles the idea of rationalizing energy-usage in a stimulating and motivating manner to enroot concepts of rationalization and their importance, revealing meantime that an electronic site has been designed and uploaded on the internet comprehending arousing data, flash-technology games and attractive competitions. He added that Posters of the cartoon-film characters and the other campaign materials have been distributed among schools participating in the campaign.
Dr. Al-Abbadi presented  SCEE profile and acquainted with tasks assigned to it; the most prominent of which is spreading awareness on energy usage rationalization, raising energy-consumption efficiency  through making use of successful experiments and applications in this filed while caring for school education in this effect, meanwhile, reviewing SCEE activities in the previous  awareness campaigns.
It is worth mentioning that SCEE has started shouldering its missions a year ago following issuing the Saudi Cabinet approval, in its resolution no. 363 dated 24/11/1431, to transform the conversion of the National Program for the Administration and Rationalization of Power Consumption into the SCEE. The resolution sprang from the Saudi government’s commitment to the optimal use of domestic sources of energy besides promoting the efficiency of its production and consumption, in line with what our Islamic religion dictates regarding the importance of rationalization and the rejection of extravagance and lavishness and squander.
The SCEE works and activities are supervised by an management committee chaired by KACST President and membership of representatives of energy - related government bodies including the Ministry of Water and Electricity, Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Transportation, KACST, the Saudi Standards and Regulatory Authority of Electricity and Cogeneration, and the General Presidency of Meteorology, and the city of King Abdullah of nuclear energy, as well as representatives from Saudi Aramco, SABIC and Saudi Electricity Company.