The College of Integrative Veterinary Therapies embraces the concept of Green education. We plan to keep our carbon footprint as small as possible. A 2005 report on the environmental impact of online learning found that "On average, the production and provision of the distance e-learning courses consumed nearly 90% less energy and produced 85% fewer CO2 emissions".
What can you do to reduce your own personal carbon footprint? Here's a look at the simple things we can do to make a small but significant difference.
Click into your classroom. By clicking into a course instead of driving or flying to one, you not only save time traveling, but you save on car or plane exhaust emissions, fuel usage, and parking, and avoid the fast food!
Resist the urge to print everything. Most of your course materials are online, so you can view them and summarise them, printing out only the pages you really need to. Consider using recycled paper to print and reuse paper that has only been printed on one side. Send back ink cartridges for recycling and also consider using environmentally friendly cartridges.
Set your computer and monitor power management controls to go into sleep mode when you are not using them, or better still switch them off. It seems like a small thing to do, but collectively the energy saving is huge.
Resist the temptation to print out emails. Flag them so you remember to act on them instead. Use the forums and chat rooms online to minimise the global impact of email communications on energy consumption and more importantly your time.
Green your education and make your pawprints light!
