Berhampur: As the world celebrated International Reducing CO2 Emissions Day on Sunday, the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) at Berhampur in Odisha’s Ganjam has decided to introduce “Wrinkle Bhi Achha Hai Day” for the dress code of the students and staff members.
In a small but significant contribution to reduce carbon emission, Principal of the state government-run ITI Rajat Kumar Panigrahi has issued an order that there would be no ironing of uniform on every Monday of the week from February 5. The students and the teaching and non-teaching staff can wear uniforms with wrinkles, said Panigrahi.
“Ironing the clothes has become a daily habit for all of us because we are expected to look neat and clean at work or schools and colleges. But is it really necessary to wear ironed clothes throughout the year? Do you know what will happen if 1.4 billion population of India decides to wear non-iron clothes for just one day a year in terms of saving energy and reducing carbon emissions,” asked Panigrahi.
“Electric iron normally consumes 500 watt to 2000 watt. A 2000-watt electric iron running for 15 minutes a day will consume around 0.5 kwh of electricity and 15 kwh in a month. Everybody wears two pieces of clothes. It takes 5 to 7 minutes to iron one piece. This will result in the equivalent of 200 grams of CO2 emission. In other words, the entire country will be emitting 250 million gram of CO2 a day just to iron their clothes. The electricity in India mostly comes from coal. One unit of electricity results in one kg of CO2 emission. So, if we decide not to iron our clothes for one day, we can save 250 million units of electricity in the country,” he said.
He further said not to iron the uniforms once in a week may be a small step. But it would have a great impact to make grassroots-level changes with the ITI having around 3500 students and 140 teaching and non-teaching staff.
“We are motivating the students and staff to accept ‘Wrinkle Bhi Acha Hai’ and follow it in their dress code. We have already intimated our higher authority about this endeavour and obtained the green signal,” he said.
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