Fifty-two schools have today switched off their electricity and water supplies for an hour in an exercise intended to show how planned and thoughtful actions can make an impact on the state of the environment and quality of life.
The schools participating in the exercise have been taking and recording morning and afternoon readings of their school’s water and electricity meters since last Monday. All the readings covering the five day school week will be pooled together and the total number of the units saved today will be calculated. This will then be converted into the quantity of carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution saved from the air.
Every unit of electricity (1kWh) releases 880g of CO2 in the air, together with other harmful gases and dust.
The activity was held on the initiative of Ekoskola and Nature Trust Malta.
The first school to switch off was St. Albert the Great College in Valletta, where mains were turned off by Joanna Drake, Head of the EU Commission Representation Office in Malta.
The activity was held to mark Schuman Day, which is recognized as being Europe Day.