Green Skills for Firefighters

Climate change and environmental degradation are an existential threat to Europe and the world. The European Green Deal is a response to these challenges and it aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The European Green Deal covers all sectors of the economy so we all have an important part to play, including firefighters.

Firefighters are omnipresent in every community across the EU. Between school visits to fire stations, talks given by the fire service to community groups and the lifesaving work, firefighters are very much in the public eye. At a time when there is such scrutiny on all aspects of climate change, firefighters can act as important public advocates in terms of environmental actions. This covers fire stations, which have an environmental impact all day, every day, the transportation involved and the fire fighting work which can be extremely polluting and damaging. Improving the green skills of firefighters will have a positive influence on the day to day environmental impacts that the fire service has in terms of pollution, waste, water and energy consumption.

The e-learning platform will be accessible from computers, tablets and smartphones. The platform will be available in 5 languages (English, Danish, Lithuanian, Greek and Spanish) and it will contain six e-learning modules:

 

Module 1: Operations. How firefighters can carry out their daily operations out of the fire station (e.g. fire fighting, activities related to SEVESO/COMAH installations and dangerous substances, etc.) in a greener way.

 

Module 2: Energy. How to reduce electricity consumption in the fire station.

 

Module 3: Water. How to reduce water consumption in the fire station.

 

Module 4: Waste. How to increase the percentage of the station waste that is recycled.

 

Module 5: Transport. How to reduce CO2 emissions.

 

Module 6: Society. How to promote sustainable behaviours in the local community.

 

Each e-learning module will include: an online course on the topic; an online tool to assess the learning outcomes from the online course and to produce a certificate; an online toolkit (set of tools, procedures, and supporting materials) to facilitate to firefighters the effective implementation of the sustainability measures described in the online course.