Campaign "turn the knob" Oberkassel school students wants radiators to be turned down nationwide
Oberkassel · Reducing energy consumption for peace and the environment - that is Mila Lehmann's goal. The Oberkassel school student is launching a nationwide campaign together with her uncle in Berlin, who has family fearing for their lives in Ukraine.
Mila Lehmann is 18 years old and will soon be doing her Abitur (school-leaving certificate) at the Kalkuhl-Gymnasium in Oberkassel. In her spare time she’s devoting herself to another big task. Her campaign "dreh.am.rad" (turn the knob) is promoting energy saving throughout Germany. Lehmann hopes that everyone will turn down their heating a little so that less gas is bought from Russia. She says that "dreh.am.rad" is meant to symbolise a collective turnaround in energy consumption.
The goal is to create general awareness and to help us reflect on our own behaviour as consumers. Can we knock five minutes off our time in the shower? Do we really have to use the car today or can we cycle? The fact that most of the gas in NRW does not come primarily from Russia is not significant for the campaign, says the 18-year-old, because using less gas is also good for the climate.
10,000 flyers printed – Influencers want to join in the campaign
But Mila Lehmann's campaign is not limited to NRW. It is aimed at the whole of Germany, where Russian gas plays a leading role. To ensure that the whole country hears about the appeal, her uncle, Karsten Lehmann, is beating the advertising drum from Berlin. Both local and national media companies are in contact with the Lehmanns, one of them Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB). Mila Lehmann said that a presenter on the "Morgenmagazin" has already spread the word about "dreh.am.rad.". Author Sebastian Fitzek has announced his support and two influencers have also promised the Lehmanns their help.
Stickers, 10,000 flyers and posters are being produced, as well as printed tags that are to be attached to the heating system thermostat to remind consumers to save energy. You can also find "dreh.am.rad" on Instagram and Linked-In, and it already has its own website (www.drehamrad.eu). A large strawberry farm is promoting the campaign locally in Berlin by distributing information material, the Lehmanns say.
So far, they have borne the costs for advertising material, which is costly, themselves. In future they will have business as donors by their side, the pair report.
Uncle's Ukrainian in-laws hide in the cellar every day because of air alarms
Karsten Lehmann came up with the idea together with his wife, he says. She is Ukrainian herself and is helping refugees learn the language on her own initiative. "You often feel like you're not doing enough to help the people in Ukraine," says Lehmann. His wife's parents still live in western Ukraine. There, he says, there is a mixture of anger at and fear of the Russian invasion. "My father-in-law actually reads our children a story every night. He can't do that now because he has to run to the basement three or four times when the air raid alarm sounds."
„We have a modest dream that in two or three years we’ll hear that energy consumption has dropped Germany-wide," say the Lehmanns. They emphasise that the campaign is not a short-term plan but that it is intended to have an effect on Germany’s radiators over a longer period of time.
Original article: Simun Sustic
Translation: Jean Lennox
