energies Article Energy Conservation Behaviors and Awareness of Polish, Czech and Ukrainian Students: A Case Study Zofia Gródek-Szostak 1, * , Mateusz Malinowski 2 , Marcin Suder 3 , Klaudia Kwiecie ´ n 2 , Stanislaw Bodziacki 2 , Magdalena D. Vaverková 4,5 , Al ˙ zbeta Maxianová 4 , Anna Krakowiak-Bal 2 , Urszula Ziemia ´ nczyk 2 , Hrihorii Uskij 2 , Karolina Kotulewicz-Wisi ´ nska 6 , Rafal Lisiakiewicz 6 , Agata Niemczyk 7 , Anna Szel ˛ ag-Sikora 8 and Marcin Niemiec 9   Citation: Gródek-Szostak, Z.; Malinowski, M.; Suder, M.; Kwiecie´ n, K.; Bodziacki, S.; Vaverková, M.D.; Maxianová, A.; Krakowiak-Bal, A.; Ziemia ´ nczyk, U.; Uskij, H.; et al. Energy Conservation Behaviors and Awareness of Polish, Czech and Ukrainian Students: A Case Study. Energies 2021, 14, 5599. https:// doi.org/10.3390/en14185599 Academic Editor: Sergey Zhironkin Received: 27 July 2021 Accepted: 2 September 2021 Published: 7 September 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Economics and Enterprise Organization, Cracow University of Economics, ul. Rakowicka 27, 31-510 Krakow, Poland 2 Department of Bioprocess Engineering, Energetics and Automatization, Faculty of Production and Power Engineering, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Balicka Street 116b, 30-149 Krakow, Poland; mateusz.malinowski@urk.edu.pl (M.M.); klaudia.kwiecien.96@gmail.com (K.K.); stanislawbodziacki@gmail.com (S.B.); anna.krakowiak-bal@urk.edu.pl (A.K.-B.); urszula.ziemianczyk@urk.edu.pl (U.Z.); hrihorijuskij@gmail.com (H.U.) 3 Department of Applications of Mathematics in Economics, Faculty of Management, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-067 Krakow, Poland;msuder@agh.edu.pl 4 Department of Applied and Landscape Ecology, Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno, Zemˇ edˇ elská 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic; magda.vaverkova@uake.cz (M.D.V.); alzbeta.maxianova@gmail.com (A.M.) 5 Institute of Civil Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland 6 Department of Political Science, Cracow University of Economics, 31-510 Krakow, Poland; kotulewk@uek.krakow.pl (K.K.-W.); lisiakir@uek.krakow.pl (R.L.) 7 Department of Tourism, Cracow University of Economics, ul. Rakowicka 27, 31-510 Krakow, Poland; agata.niemczyk@uek.krakow.pl 8 Department of Production Engineering, Logistics and Applied Computer Science, Faculty of Production and Power Engineering, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Balicka 116b, 30-149 Krakow, Poland; anna.szelag-sikora@urk.edu.pl 9 Faculty of Agriculture and Economics, University of Agriculture in Krakow, al. Mickiewicza 21, 31-121 Kraków, Poland; Marcin.Niemiec@urk.edu.pl * Correspondence: grodekz@uek.krakow.pl Abstract: Energy education of the younger generation, who are the future decision makers, investors, consumers, scientists, or skilled labor force in new energy technologies, is crucial for the future of Europe and the world. However, beyond the long-term goals of energy education policies, the short-term effects on energy conservation and the promotion of renewable energy sources are equally as important. The main purpose of the paper is to identify and analyze the behavior of students (who study the issues related to energy saving and RES), in terms of energy conservation. The conducted analysis focused on examining and comparing the scope of responses of the surveyed students in individual countries, especially in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Ukraine. The survey was carried out using the computer-assisted web interview (CAWI). Descriptive and graphical methods were used to present the results. Statistical analysis of the collected data included basic measures of descriptive statistics and the chi-square test. The main results of the study are as follows: Almost 60% of the surveyed students follow the principles of energy conservation; however increased educational activities on eco-energy behaviors is recommended. The share of RES in the heating systems of the studied residential buildings is 9%, on average, with the highest percentage of houses in Poland (14%) and the lowest in Ukraine (only 2.6%). When compared with literature reports, the collect data show that educational activities can be as effective as a tool in implementing RES and pro-environmental behaviors as the government’s environmental policy and household subsidies. Keywords: energy consumption; energy conservation; higher education; management Energies 2021, 14, 5599. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185599 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies