Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5BB, UK.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Feb 20;756:143964. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143964. Epub 2020 Nov 25.
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to compare the carbon intensity of higher education delivered on- and off-campus. This is attributed to governmental lockdown orders that have forced Universities to close their campuses, ban business travel and move all teaching and learning activities online. This study represents the first known attempt to compare the carbon footprint of a mid-sized UK University produced during the COVID-19 lockdown (April-June 2020) against that generated within the respective time period in previous years. Although the overall carbon footprint of the University decreased by almost 30% during the lockdown, the carbon intensity of online teaching and learning was found to be substantial and almost equal to that of staff and student commute in the pre-lockdown period. The study contributed to an emerging academic discourse on the carbon (dis)benefits of different models of higher education provision in the UK and beyond. The study suggested that policy and management decisions on transferring education online should carefully consider the carbon implications of this transfer.
译文：
新冠疫情大流行提供了一个独特的机会，可以比较校园内和校园外高等教育的碳强度。这归因于政府的封锁令，这些封锁令迫使大学关闭校园、禁止商务旅行，并将所有教学和学习活动转移到线上。本研究代表了首次尝试比较在新冠疫情封锁期间（2020 年 4 月至 6 月）产生的英国一所中型大学的碳足迹，以及前几年同期产生的碳足迹。尽管大学的整体碳足迹在封锁期间下降了近 30%，但研究发现，在线教学和学习的碳强度相当大，几乎与封锁前时期教职员工和学生通勤的碳强度相等。本研究有助于推动英国乃至其他国家关于高等教育提供模式的碳（益）劣势的学术讨论。研究表明，关于将教育转移到线上的政策和管理决策应该仔细考虑这种转移的碳影响。
