eLearning Platform: Impact on Your Organization and the Environment

What is the value proposition of eLearning enticing businesses to use it as their primary means of training? Organizations can profit from eLearning in several ways, including enhanced ROI, improved employee performance, lower training costs, and so on. However, another significant benefit is the impact that eLearning has, or does not, on the environment.

Incorporating an eLearning Platform in your organization can result in significant environmental benefits. Online learning helps to lessen the negative environmental implications of manufacturing and transportation.

Read more: Why Corporate E-learning Is the Future of Organizational Training?

Here’s how eLearning reduces waste and consumption

1. Materials and resources for training – According to a study, 350 million cartridges wind up in landfills each year due to printing, and it will take about 1,000 years for them to degrade fully. You can eliminate the need for physical materials with an eLearning training plan compared with traditional instructor-led training. In addition, you may help the environment by providing reusable resources available electronically through online learning.

2. Trees – Research from the National Wildlife Foundation demonstrates that paper accounts for more than 60% of waste generated by educational institutions. Even more concerning is that every tonne of paper wasted equates to the destruction of 16 big trees. Recycling ten tonnes of paper is equivalent to using up to one hundred barrels of crude oil. Traditional education is renowned for overusing “busy work,” which is a cause of paper waste. If the U.S cut office paper use by just 10%, it would prevent the emission of 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases, which is the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road. 

Furthermore, the amount of paper thrown out each year is comparable to a 12 ft. wall from New York to California. With paper manufacturing being the third-largest consumer of fossil fuels, online training is a terrific approach to help save trees and keep a healthy environment.

3. Training facilities – As your staff grows, you will need to extend your training areas to meet the increased learning demand. Online training avoids the requirement for building remodels or the purchase of more training space, both of which can necessitate the hurting of existing vegetation and plants to carry out new building plans. Furthermore, such facilities will require heating/air, power, and so on, which requires additional energy. With eLearning, you may eliminate the requirement for in-person training sites and provide courses that can be accessed practically anywhere, with no new environmental risks and reduced energy use due to remote distribution possibilities.

4. Gasoline –  If your firm requires off-site training, your personnel must have transportation. Today, the most frequent mode of transportation use gasoline, which directly influences the environment. According to research from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans use 600 gallons of gas each year, corresponding to around $2,600 in personal expenses. {Source2} For organizations with several locations, possibly separated across the country, conducting face-to-face training can require a significant amount of business miles. In addition, mobile trainers necessitate the use of business vehicles, which use gasoline. Traditional face-to-face training may also necessitate learners to travel from numerous locations, all of which add up to a significant environmental impact. You can use eLearning to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources while also lowering associated travel expenditures.

5. Eliminate flying for training – The world’s 16,000 commercial jet aircraft produce more than 600 million tonnes of CO2 annually. When considering pollution & emissions, A study conducted by the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) found that online learning courses resulted in a 90% reduction in emissions.  This, when included with the money spent on airplane tickets for your workforce, can help save exponentially.

6. Rid yourself of the junk – We’ve all been to training sessions when you bring a notepad and paper only to find that the training team has also provided training books and cheap plastic pens placed across each table. There might even be a stack of disposable plastic cups, not to mention the paper feedback forms and plastic bags provided for you to haul away your newfound clutter! 

Read more: Why Do Corporate LMS Training Practices Need To Go Beyond Traditional LMS?

It pays to Go Green

The “Go Green” initiative created a broad philosophy, ideology, and civic conscience embraced by several organizations regarding concerns for environmental preservation and improvement of environmental health. The measure for this health seeks to integrate non-human elements’ as well.

Today, many businesses support sustainable growth programs and environmentally friendly initiatives, and they actively promote these attitudes and habits among their employees. Messages about “becoming green” are everywhere because human conduct has harmed the environment in several ways.

Implementing an eLearning platform within your organization benefits more than just the environment. In reality, having an eco-friendly approach that includes a robust eLearning program delivers a plethora of other practical benefits, such as:

1. Broader Appeal — Your firm may be able to attract environmentally concerned customers.

2. Happier workforce – When possible, incorporating technologies that facilitate telecommuting reduces employee stress, perhaps leading to higher productivity and job satisfaction.

3. Positive brand image — A green reputation may assist your company in attracting top talent and socially conscious personnel.

4. Be a leader – We humans have a herd mentality. Our behaviors get influenced by those of our friends, peers, and society as a whole. When organizations begin to act more ethically, others will follow. Few organizations bragged about their environmental credentials 20 years ago. Few people can now afford not to. When you create an eco-friendly online training program, you inspire other organizations to follow suit.

5. Follow the law – For many organizations, reducing environmental consequences is also a legal necessity. For example, EU regulations impose legal obligations on European automakers to reduce CO2 emissions from their automobiles. There are also new laws governing everything from waste management to air and noise pollution that did not exist just a few decades ago. These laws will only become more stringent, and transitioning to eLearning is one way to stay ahead of the competition.

Read more: How Does an Enterprise LMS Software Enable Market Success for Businesses Today?

Considering these aspects, it is clear that eLearning training platforms impact the environment significantly. By providing learning and development opportunities that create a safer and cleaner environment, you can demonstrate that your organization takes pride in assisting others and instilling a positive relationship with your brand. With online training, you truly make the planet a better place.

Skill Lake is a powerful, flexible, and tailored Learning Management System (LMS) for organizations of all sizes. Our LMS provides the most modern features and tools to achieve outstanding eLearning outcomes and support areas like LMS hosting, user training, content authoring, reporting, etc.

Contact our experts to know how Skill Lake can help your organization save money and time with online training programs while doing your bit for the environment.