SusTEACH has developed a freely available online toolkit to support universities in planning more sustainable courses.
It includes a carbon calculator which allows students and lecturers to work out their own carbon impact on a particular course.
SusTEACH analysed more than 30 higher education courses and concluded that courses using ICT and distance teaching methods are more environmentally friendly than campus-based ones.
"We found that the main sources of carbon impacts are associated with travel, residential energy consumption and campus site operations," says Dr Sally Caird, research fellow in the OU's faculty of Maths, Computing and Technology.
"The use of online and ICT-enhanced teaching and delivery methods, as well as traditional distance teaching, reduced these sources of energy consumption, and were therefore able to achieve significant carbon reductions."
The SusTEACH tool kit will be used across the OU in a number of qualifications and programmes, says Andy Lane, the OU's Professor of Environmental Systems, adding "we will look at it in the BSc in Environmental Management and Technology".
The project was a finalist in the Research and Development category of the 2012 Green Gown Awards, which celebrate sustainability achievements in higher and further education. The category winner was Scotland's Rural College (SRUC).
For more information about SusTeach and the OU's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint see the SusTeach video
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