The Green World

"It's the end of the summer ... You can spin the light to gold" - Dar Williams

In this somewhat preachy post I want to make a case for considering the environmental impact of e-learning and other university systems and for including the environment as a stakeholder in our projects. In the past year or so I have watched the environment move from a left wing / green trope to become a mainstream topic of political debate in Australia. For example, The Green Building Council of Australia has released a new rating tool for schools and universities across Australia (see: http://www.gbcaus.org/). So I admit that I'm a latecomer and I hope that some readers will be able to offer more radical views and actions. If you read nothing else on this topic then please try and find a copy of McDonough and Braungart's Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, which really changed my way of thinking.

We are already reasonably certain that human environmental impact will be an economic imperative throughout the 21st centaury (Stern, 2006). McDonough and Braungart (2002) argue that our current economic paradigm is unsustainable as our systems of manufacture are relentlessly harming our collective health and that of our eco-system. They show that an ecologically effective paradigm, founded on systems that aim beyond zero waste, appears feasible. They also accept that significant research and cultural change will be required. In the longer term, the HE sector is well-situated to research, develop and transfer ecologically efficient processes and technologies. For now, despite current economic pressures, HE still enjoys a modest license to put critique into action and could therefore implement cultural change as a precursor to effecting modest ecological transformations.

Naively, we might expect a dash for e-learning to significantly reduce HE’s environmental footprint. Unfortunately, while paper-based distance learning seems to offer significant reductions, current e-learning practice offers scant improvements over commuting to campus. A recent report for the UK Open University by Roy et al highlighted that “on average, the production and provision of the distance learning courses consumed nearly 90% less energy and produced 85% fewer CO2 emissions (per student per 10 CAT points) than the conventional campus-based university courses.” … however … “e-learning courses appear to offer only a small reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions (20% and 12% respectively) when compared to mainly print-based distance learning courses. This is due to high student use of computing, consumption of paper for printing off Web-based material, and additional home heating.” (Roy et al 2005: 4). So an ethical HE sector might perform an ecological audit on its e-learning programs and incorporate environmentally effective learning materials printed on substances such as polypropylene, which can be easily recycled (McDonough, 2007). Such a cultural change could be seeded by adding environmental auditing to the curricula of staff development courses hosted by learning and teaching departments.

In the case of blended and traditional learning, a well intentioned institution might want to reduce the carbon footprint of its campus. Indeed, a recent survey, reported in the UK Guardian (Lipsett, 2007), showed that some HE institutions are making good progress with transforming their campuses into energy efficient systems. For example “Leeds Met gets 85% of its energy from renewable sources and recycles 36% of its waste” (op cite). Unfortunately the survey also revealed that the majority of UK campuses have yet to respond to the ecological imperative. We think that needs to change. The Higher Education Funding Council for England, think so too. They are funding the Higher Education Environmental Performance Initiative (HEEPI) (HEEPI, 2007) whose web site explains the relevance of the International Standards Organisation's standard, ISO 14001 scheme and the Eco-Management and Audit (EMAS) scheme of the European Union to HE institutions. The HEEPI web site represents a good entry point to learn about these standards and the roles they could play in HE transformations.

Problematically, the ubiquity of ICT on campus is contributing heavily to HE’s energy usage and emissions. In the United States, green campus initiatives are starting to raise consciousness on this issue. For example, Harvard University maintains a green campus web site which warns staff and students that “one desktop computer left on all day for one year can result in more than 1500 pounds of CO2 being released into the atmosphere. It would take 100 to 500 trees to offset that amount of extra CO2.” (Harvard, 2007). The web site also contains a purchasing guide which offers useful information such as “laptops use 1/4 the energy of desktops” (Harvard, 2007) phrased in straightforward language. Accessing such information could easily be included as an activity in staff and student inductions performed by information technology services and libraries.

ICT can be applied to support environmentally effective practices including as video conferencing and online billing (Pamlin and Szomolányi , 2006). Conference travel can be regarded as a pleasant aspect of academic life and it might be painful to give up. However, various organizations such as the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), have realised that academic conferences incur a high carbon footprint and have started to organize online events (JISC, 2007). Pamlin and Szomolányi (2006) estimate that replacing paper telephone bills for 100 million EU citizens would save 109,100 tonnes of CO2 per annum. I recently managed implementation of an online registration project for the University of Sussex as part of the Sussex Direct project. The sub-project was straightforward and cost effective. Moreover, the requirement for organizational change was minimal. However, although ecological concerns were an explicit driver, it is regrettable that an ecological audit was not performed at any point in the project. It would require a very minor organizational transformation for HE institutions to establish cross-functional teams to routinely address such issues. I advocate that an ecological audit should be included within the due diligence and evaluation for all transformational projects and especially those requiring significant new ICT platforms. If HE is to avoid inflicting ‘remote ecological tyranny’ upon future generations (c.f. McDonough and Braungart 2003), then HE needs to make the environment a driver and stake holder in its transformations.

References

• Lipsett, A. (2007), Leeds Met tops Green University League Table. The Guardian Friday June 15, 2007. http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2104028,00.html. Accessed 22 June 2007.



• Higher Education Environmental Performance Initiative (2007), Higher Education Environmental Performance Initiative. http://www.heepi.org.uk/. Accessed 22 June 2007.



• Joint Information Systems Committee (2007), Innovating E-Learning Online Conference 2007: FAQ. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning_pedagogy/elp_conference07/faq.aspx. Accessed 22 June 2007.



• McDonough and Braungart (2002), Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York, NY: North Point Press.



• McDonough, W. (2007), Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things. http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm. Accessed 22 June 2007.



• Pamlin, D. and Szomolányi, K. (2006), Saving the Climate @ the Speed of Light: First Roadmap for Reduced CO2 Emissions in the EU and Beyond. A joint initiative of ETNO and WWF. http://www.etno.be/Portals/34/ETNO%20Documents/Sustainability/Climate%20Change%20Road%20Map.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2007.



• Roy, R., Potter, S., Yarrow, K. and Smith, M. (2005), Towards Sustainable Higher Education: Environmental Impacts of Campus-Based and Distance Higher Education Systems. Milton Keynes: The Open University. http://www3.open.ac.uk/events/3/2005331_47403_o1.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2007.



• Stern, N. (2006), Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. HM Teasury. Available at: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/stern_review_report.cfm. Accessed 22 June 2007.