How does online training help the environment? - Part I

Approximate reading time: 1m 55s

Now we're going to give you a slightly different perspective on Illumination - we're going to look at it from an environmental perspective.

With a short series of articles, we hope to help you appreciate online training, not only for its advantages as a form of learning, but also for its contribution to environmental protection.

In this article, we will focus on one of the most important effects that e-learning has on the environment, or "How do online trainings help to pollute the air less with carbon dioxide?".

Often, companies that are located in different countries (or even within a country) have to organize trainings for their employees. In order to implement these trainings, they have to gather all their employees and trainers in one place, which not only spends a lot of money, but also consumes fuel for the road, the combustion of which emits large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases harmful to the air.

One of the biggest advantages of distance learning is that it allows large groups of people from all over the world to learn at the same time. Because the training is entirely online, the trainees, as well as the trainers, do not need to travel to the venues where the trainings take place. Reducing driving, and in some cases flying, leads to a significant reduction in emissions and pollution. Also, people travelling in big cities often face heavy traffic, thus even aggravating the pollution situation in the city. Just imagine how much the emission of CO2 and other harmful gases is reduced when distance learning is carried out. Of course, it is not the case that if a company with 50 staff uses online training, the pollution situation in the city will improve, but if half the companies in the city introduce e-learning, things will look different.

All this applies not only to companies, but also to educational institutions, such as schools. Imagine how many greenhouse gases would be saved if students did not have to travel to school every day, either by public transport or driven by their parents.

Moreover, the more a vehicle is used, the faster its parts wear out. This necessitates replacing them with new ones, which in turn leads to an increase in production and, ultimately, even more air pollution.

In order to prove to you that e-lorning can indeed help to effectively reduce carbon dioxide emissions, we will use some statistics:

1. For a training course of 50 weeks length and a capacity of 20 people, about 6,000 barrels of gas are used. The amount of gases emitted is equivalent to that produced by 200 vehicles travelling a distance of 12,000 miles. If the course is moved online, this automatically reduces the CO2 emitted by around 1,200 tonnes.

2. A well-known British Free University study, cited in many articles, shows that distance learning produces 85% less carbon dioxide , compared to classroom learning.

Based on these statistics, we can conclude with a clear conscience that online training is an effective environmental alternative to traditional training. However, reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere is not the only environmental advantage of e-learning. More on the other environmental benefits of i-learning will be published in future articles.