Bulgarian
English
Approximate reading time: 2m 2s
Now we will present to you a slightly different perspective on e-learning - we will look at it from the point of view of the environment.
We hope that with a short series of articles, we will help you appreciate online trainings not only for their advantages as a form of learning, but also for their contribution to environmental protection.
In this article, we will focus on one of the most important effects that e-learning has on the environment, namely „How do online trainings help reduce air pollution with carbon dioxide?”.
It is often necessary for companies located in different countries (or even within the borders of one country) to organize trainings for their employees. In order to carry out these trainings, they have to bring all their employees and instructors to one place, which not only costs a lot of money, but also consumes fuel for travel, the burning of which releases large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other harmful gases into the air.
One of the biggest advantages of distance learning is that it makes it possible to train large groups of people from all over the world at the same time. Since the training is entirely online, there is no need for the learners, as well as the trainers, to travel to the venues where the trainings are held. Reducing driving, and in some cases flying, leads to a significant decrease in harmful emissions and pollution. Also, people who travel in large cities often face heavy traffic, thereby even worsening the pollution situation in the city. Just imagine how much the emission of CO2 and other harmful gases is reduced when distance trainings are conducted. Of course, this is not about the fact that if a company with 50 employees uses online training, the pollution situation in the city will improve, but if half of the companies in the city introduce the electronic form of training, things will look different.
All this applies not only to companies, but also to educational institutions such as schools, for example. Imagine how many greenhouse gases would be saved if students did not have to travel every day to school - whether by public transport or driven by their parents.
In addition, the more a vehicle is used, the faster its parts wear out. This requires replacing them with new ones, which in turn leads to increased production, and ultimately - to even more air pollution.
To prove to you that e-learning can indeed help effectively reduce carbon dioxide emissions, we will use a little statistical data:
1. For a training course with a length of 50 weeks and a capacity of 20 people, about 6,000 barrels of gas are consumed. The amount of harmful gases released is equivalent to that produced by 200 vehicles traveling a distance of 12,000 miles. If the course is moved online, this automatically reduces the emitted CO2 by about 1,200 tons.
2. A well-known study by The Open University of the UK, cited in many articles, indicates that distance learning produces 85% less carbon dioxide compared to classroom learning.
Based on these statistics, we can confidently conclude that online trainings are an effective environmental alternative to traditional trainings. However, reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere is not the only environmental advantage of e-learning. We will publish more about the other environmental benefits of e-learning in the next articles.
