News · March 2024

VR training for education and a sustainable future

Training can involve flights, hotels, printed workbooks and a room booked for the day. When VR replaces those requirements, it can reduce the travel and materials used to deliver the session.

A simulated learning centre in a remote town, a student wears the headset at the desk as a tutor sits beside him.

Reducing carbon footprints in training

Face-to-face programs can require local and international travel, which adds emissions. Remote VR delivery can reduce those journeys, with the learner and the tutor never leaving their own building.

Eco-friendly training environments

A virtual room can replace some paper, printed workbooks and training props, and be reused across sessions.

Three students, one wearing a headset, turn toward each other mid-discussion.
One room, every session. A digital ward, depot or classroom can be built once and reused across every session that follows, instead of printed for each one.
A cafe scenario for practising supported movement.
Lower-energy hardware. Lower-energy headsets, efficient software and careful material choices can reduce the resources used to run VR training.
Three people gather around a table model, examining it together.

A more sustainable way to train

Reducing travel and materials can lower the emissions and waste associated with training delivery, without reducing the number of people who get to practise.

Read more from PTR's other work

The same delivery model applies across healthcare, aged care and disability education.

A community nurse sits alone in a carpark, a VR training scenario for healthcare.
Healthcare. Read more about PTR's work in healthcare.
An older resident and a carer talk together in an aged-care garden.
Aged care and disability. Read more about PTR's work in aged care and disability education.
A student joins a remote learning check-in, seen through the headset.
Education. The same no-travel delivery model applies across PTR's education modules.
A care worker wearing a headset stands with a resident and a family member, rehearsing a conversation before it happens for real.

Update, August 2026

This article was first published in March 2024. The sustainability case made here still holds, and PTR's current VR Library and Labs demos are further examples of VR training that needs no travel to deliver.

Explore the PTR VR Library or try a demo on PTR Labs.

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Related PTR work

Where this sustainability case connects to the rest of the site.

Two people compare VR Library scene cards at a table.
The PTR VR Library. Facilitated sessions delivered without travel to a physical room.
A man wearing a headset stands opposite a colleague, each on a marked spot.
XR overview. Virtual, augmented and mixed reality builds, and the headsets they run on.
A manager rehearses a feedback conversation with a simulated colleague.
Revolutionise human skills training. The practice case behind the library's modules.
A team leader gives a colleague feedback in a cross-sector scenario.
How VR training can boost DEI efforts. The wider case for VR in DEI training.
A clinician sits with a young woman outside, a VR training scenario for healthcare.
Healthcare and medical. PTR's full healthcare and medical industries page.
A participant wearing a headset addresses four seated colleagues.
Aged care and disability. PTR's full aged care and disability industries page.
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The PRACTICE lane on PTR Labs Demos: three of its roleplay characters shown one after another in cinematic office settings, a golden-hour boardroom, a customer lounge and a dusk meeting room
PRACTICE
The PLAY lane on PTR Labs Demos: a slow moving view through three environments from the 360 Immersive Experience, a museum hall, a hospital room and a modern waterfront, animated from the experience's real 360 scenes
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The CREATE lane on PTR Labs Demos: a chibi character modelled on PTR's co-founder runs toward the camera through Scope Creep Sprint's world, leaping an office chair and a jammed printer
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The CONNECT lane: a six-person video call grid bringing a distributed organisation together, among them a woman using a wheelchair and a man dialling in from a greenhouse
CONNECT
The CONSULT lane: Simon leads an adaptive AI consultation, talking a client through a tailored recommendation shown on a tablet between them
CONSULT
The COLLABORATE lane: Leonie leads a co-design workshop at a whiteboard, mapping ideas with sticky notes while the group gathers around her
COLLABORATE
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Keia Hobbs, MD
PTR demonstrated a profound understanding of the intricacies of human behaviour, crucial in crafting meaningful and impactful experiences. I wholeheartedly endorse PTR and their commitment to creating impactful experiences.
Keia Hobbs, MD
Assistant Dean of Graduate Medical Education, University of Illinois Chicago
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