No matter whether compressed air leaks or heat is lost: Across Germany, correspondingly trained apprentices – known as Energy Scouts – are finding the leaks in their training companies and are repairing them. The Energy Scouts are a project component of the nationwide “Mittelstandsinitiative Energiewende und Klimaschutz” (“SMI association Energy Turnover and Climate Protection”), a community project from the Federal Environment Ministry and Federal Ministry of Economics, the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Zentralverband des Deutschen Handwerks. Through this training program, the youths were taught about climate and environmental protection because they experienced how much energy can be saved even with small measures, even in large companies.

Dierk Göhringer, head of training, and Andreas Eigner, head of environmental and energy management, initiated this project at Föhl in 2017 for the first time. Two groups from the second training year completed the training in March. They learned basic theoretical and practical knowledge about energy technology, which they should now implement in practice – especially in the compressed air system because the largest savings potential was identified here. In the coming weeks, the prospective Energy Scouts will take and evaluate measurements, come up with improvements and infer measures. Because of the positive response, this training will certainly become a permanent component of the course for apprentices at Föhl in their second year.