Learning from Covid–19 in Energy and Environment Management through Case Studies in Education and Commercial Sectors

This paper presents case study results of learning from COVID-19 in energy and environment management in the areas of education and commercial sector. This focuses on analysing the adaptation of online platforms in terms of energy and environment aspects through the learnings during the COVID-19 pandemic period. In addition, the paper estimates the relationship between online adaptive approaches and traditional classroom or workplace approaches in terms of primary electricity consumption, fuel usage, emission of air pollutant gases.

 

The outcome of this paper will be useful to all who could make some strategic decisions on working from home as well as the policymakers and respective officials of the education sector who could design their courses or programs with a novel approach. Eventually, researchers willing to further investigate will get new areas or openings.

 

The research has identified six main areas of the primary energy use at home which have to be addressed separately to measure the impact on energy and the environment. They are transport, equipment use, cooling and heating, lighting, cooking, and entertainment. Then the total primary energy use was compared with energy consumption at the office, classroom, or meeting room. The study found that work from home scenario has a significant impact on energy and environment, and following that online education and online meeting, scenarios display lesser impacts on energy and environment during the COVID–19 pandemic period. It highlights that transportation has played a vital role in all three contexts.