Enriching Education - College Enrollment and Climate Change

 With 85% of students commuting to college in the past year, the online education site MyElearningWorld released a new report analyzing the potential impacts on Climate Change.

Most notably, the report found that a college student who attends classes 5 days a week emits about 1.2 metric tons (or 2,672 pounds) of CO2 every school year.  

You can view the full report, along with our analysis, here: https://myelearningworld.com/college-commuting-emissions-study/

More Notable Findings

The report includes a graph and infographic (feel free to use them!) along with other notable findings:

• The average commuter college student drives 20 miles daily to and from school
• student commuter emissions may have reached as high as 38.7 billion pounds of CO2 in 2023
  
• the average 5-day student can emit nearly 5 metric tons (about 10,688 pounds) of C02 from their vehicle during a 4-year stint driving to and from school
  
• Even if all students only commuted to school 3 days a week, that would still represent 23.2 billion pounds of CO2 emissions this year

As online learning and hybrid learning continue to grow as viable means of education, the report suggests that if a larger portion of the student population could shift to remote or hybrid models, the decrease in daily commutes could lead to a significant reduction in overall CO2 emissions. This change could play a significant role in combating climate change.