In recent years, XR has shown that it can play a significant role in creating environmentally sustainable alternatives for the future. Join us as we explore some of the innovative ways XR is helping the environment. 

XR cuts emissions by saving on travel

One of the simplest ways XR can protect the planet is through remote assistance. In our past blog posts, we've covered many of the ways in which this capability supports frontline workers by instantly connecting them to experts and specialists.

For instance, remote assistance plays a crucial role in healthcare, delivering telehealth services to hard-to-reach areas. And it's a huge boon for engineers, who require specialised knowledge to carry out complicated repairs.

As well as saving time and money, remote assistance through XR reduces carbon emissions by eliminating unnecessary travel. Sure, we've had the ability to connect remotely with each other for years – but texting on the job doesn't cut it. Neither does picking up the phone and calling for help. These are not viable options for paramedics or engineers, who need to keep their hands free at all times.

XR is a viable and innovative solution that minimises your company's carbon footprint by offering a workable alternative to those clunky walkie-talkies (and all that paperwork). Let's walk through a couple more scenarios.

Metaverse meeting rooms

XR can streamline your business practice and cut emissions across the board. Management and directors can take advantage of virtual workspaces and boardrooms, for example. Using the Metaverse, teams can organise face-to-face meetings without moving an inch. 

But surely normal video calling methods do the same thing? Well, sure they do. But what a standard video conferencing platform doesn't do is offer intuitive tools to foster collaboration. Virtual meetings not only stand in for face-to-face dialogue but – in some key areas – enhance it.

For instance, designers and architects can use 3D modelling to conduct guided site tours of their plans for review. These digital spaces can be updated and used over and over again, allowing for more flexibility and real-time feedback. 

Distance learning

XR has ushered in a new era for distance learning.

For one, the classroom size has grown. Take the example of virtual ward rounds at Imperial College London. These allowed 350 students to observe how clinical planning was conducted for inpatients. With a single headset, a doctor can stream a ward round traditionally reserved for a handful of medical students to a captive audience of hundreds. 

Research has shown that VR training produces higher success and retention rates among students compared with traditional methods. Not only is VR technology training the next generation of surgeons, but it's also cost-effective and significantly reduces the resources and travel time needed for students to benefit from a world-class education. 

However, there is still more work to be done. Many people in the world that could benefit from digital learning live in countries that lack the infrastructure to support the digital ecosystem needed to deliver immersive classroom experiences. 

This was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic when school closures precipitated a mass migration to digital platforms. This caused major disruptions to education around the world. XR technology is perfectly positioned to address these problems in the future.

Harnessing VR to raise environmental awareness

What if virtual environments could make a positive change in people's behaviour and attitude towards their own environment? Could VR affect and raise the consciousness of individuals around environmental issues using immersive, virtual experiences?

These are the questions that researchers across multiple disciplines are asking. Let's take a look at two case studies.

The virtual reef experiment

At the University of Bremen, Germany, a group of scientists began testing this hypothesis. They set about building a virtual coral reef. It was rich and detailed – and shared all of the same ecological diversity as a real reef. In this virtual reef, they simulated the environmental decay of the reef under extreme conditions. 

They invited participants to explore this virtual reef, and in doing so, witness the decay of the reef first-hand. They were particularly interested in how different levels of immersion would affect participants' intentions to modify their behaviour afterwards. 

Their results were very interesting – and quite unexpected. The study found that the simulation of a dying coral reef did influence participants' emotional state and willingness to change their behaviour. This was (perhaps unsurprisingly) because of "the emotion of sadness and the feeling of helplessness". 

However, perhaps more surprisingly, the simulation was less effective the more immersive it was. The researchers concluded that the VR environment must be a delicate test environment and suggested that future studies account for this. 

"2100": a virtual reality climate change game

In 2017, designer and architect Vanessa Keith published her thought-provoking book 2100: A Dystopian Utopia – The City After Climate Change.

In the book, Keith explores a future in which climate change has wrought irreversible damage to our world and our cities. The book aims to define how humans will have to adapt to their surroundings from a design perspective and challenges the reader to rethink their relationship to nature. 

Recently, Keith has turned her attention to VR. In an attempt to develop the ideas explored in 2100, she has created a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Players are faced with the task of creating innovative ways to protect their city from environmental disaster.

So what can a game about climate change do to alter the course of our real-world emergency? 

In an interview with Columbia Climate School, Keith said, "I'm really hoping that this can be a place where people can connect and share ideas. Also, a lot of the messaging around climate change is intensely negative. Maybe it's not reaching people because it's just so daunting. Maybe we could get more people on board using fun, because fear doesn't seem to be working. People just shut down."

XR has huge potential for social change – and for industrial progress. Follow our XR blog to learn about existing and emerging use cases for this exciting technology.