In the third week of January the Agency hosted two colleagues from the Portuguese Energy Agency ADENE. The aim of this visit was to continue to collaborate on ongoing and future projects between the two agencies and most importantly share knowledge and experiences from both countries.
Continuing from the first visit held in Lisbon in October, colleagues from ADENE are now supporting a pilot study in Malta for Aqua+ for Hotels. Aqua+ is an innovative classification system for water efficiency in buildings. This pilot will allow ADENE to test the methodology outside Portugal and will allow the Energy and Water Agency to understand such tools and adapt them to support local enterprises in becoming more sustainable. This pilot study is possible with the support of local hotels Verdi St George’s Bay Marina (part of the Corinthia Group) and InterContinental Malta (part of Eden Leisure Group) who have accepted to collaborated in this project. During the visit on site evaluation of the water efficiency of these hotels was commenced, with detailed review of water usage in the guest rooms and other hotel operations such as kitchens and laundries. Work on this project will continue in the coming weeks with the aim of giving the first certifications in Malta for Aqua+ to these hotels.
Visits were also done across the island to companies and clubs that are making huge strides in becoming more sustainable by implementing projects with the support of initiatives done by EWA. The first was a visit to one of the guesthouses that participated in the GUEST project, Mulberries Wellbeing Chateau in Zabbar. This guesthouse has been designed to be sustainable from inception and has kept on improving its operations to become more sustainable each year. In their latest efforts they carried out an energy audit financed by the agency to identify areas of improvement, as well as applied for funds to increase its solar thermal water heating capacity. During the visit the owners explained how the material used in the construction was all reclaimed from other sites, use collected rainwater to irrigate and in guest room flushing systems as well as minimising plastic use through their concentrate detergent system.
A visit was also done to Fgura FC, who have made use of the Energy and Water Efficiency Scheme managed by EWA to restore an old reservoir. This now allows them to use collected rainwater for all the water being used in the club house. During this visit it was also possible to demonstrate how old water conservation structures are in Malta, with the club being built onto the outer Cottonera fortifications. The final visit was to the agency’s Ghajn centre in Rabat, where ADENE was explained the various educational programs that are done at the centre, including the Chadwick Lakes Trail. They were also shown the centre rooftop that currently holds a roof garden and a number of PV installations that are being used for research purposes by the Agency.
During this second meeting held in Malta it was possible to share insights on the work done by both agencies and more importantly keep planning projects to continue to work together in the coming months with the aim to always expand and improve our knowledge on water and energy conservation in both countries.
