SMOWL’s social and environmental impact: 2024 goals and metrics

The social and environmental impact of SMOWL aligns with the United Nations´ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

At Smowltech, we are committed to providing solutions that promote high-quality, accessible, and inclusive education, breaking down social, physical, and economic barriers.

Simultaneously, we develop innovative tools aimed at reducing the carbon footprint associated with in-person exams, such as travel emissions, paper usage, and infrastructure requirements. Our mission is to ensure that assessments are both sustainable and environmentally responsible.

Keep reading to explore our strategic framework in 2024, how we measure our social and environmental impact, our commitment to education and sustainability, and Smowltech’s role in transforming the EdTech industry.

Strategic framework 2024: SMOWL’s key impact goals

In 2024, SMOWL’s strategic framework was structured around three core impact goals, targeted toward benefiting society and the environment. Let’s dive into each one:

Goal 1: Strengthen the quality of online education

Improving the quality of online education has been our first major objective. You might wonder how we contribute to this, considering that educational content typically defines a program’s quality.

While pedagogical resources and instructional methods are critical, it is equally essential to provide students with fair evaluations and meaningful feedback in secure and equitable environments.

This is where SMOWL steps in. We offer non-invasive proctoring solutions that fully comply with privacy regulations while guaranteeing academic integrity. Our tools ensure fair, reliable assessments that can be customized to each institution’s pace and standards.

In 2024 alone, 502,258 students validated a degree or certification through online assessments using SMOWL. That’s a direct contribution to educational quality.

Goal 2: Improve access to university and corporate education

Enhancing accessibility in education helps break down systemic barriers so that students from different backgrounds can benefit from the same opportunities and rights.

According to data gathered by Universidad Isabel I based on a survey of 100 students, 70% said that online education enabled them to balance personal and professional responsibilities.

Additionally, 76% of respondents mentioned they would need more than 1–2 hours to travel to an exam center, an obstacle that can block many people from advancing their careers or transitioning into new fields.

This is why Smowltech is committed to education as a social elevator, driving access without economic, geographic, organizational, or mobility constraints.

Goal 3: Reduce the environmental impact of travel

We also commit to environmental protection. SMOWL significantly reduces the carbon footprint that would result from students traveling to educational or corporate centers for in-person exams.

Specifically, we estimate that 21,288 tons of CO₂ would have been emitted had these exams been conducted on-site.

SMOWL’s social and environmental impact measurement methodologies

We measure our social and environmental impact in collaboration with academic institutions, companies, and public organizations.

The data we collect relies on clear indicators directly tied to our three strategic goals.

Indicators for online education quality

We quantify the quality of online education by the number of students who earn credentials through assessments conducted with SMOWL proctoring. As noted earlier, in 2024, this number reached 502,258 individuals.

Indicators for accessibility improvement

In this case, we can understand our impact through the data shared by educational centers and institutions regarding the number of individuals facing physical, transportation, or systemic barriers.

This was exemplified by Universidad Isabel I and its survey of 100 students, which revealed highly relevant insights into the barriers that can be overcome through distance education.

Indicators for environmental impact reduction

We evaluate the environmental benefit of remote testing by calculating the amount of CO₂ emissions avoided through the elimination of in-person exam travel.

In 2024, we avoided exactly 21,288 tons of CO₂ emissions. Here’s how we calculated it:

• Total online exams in 2024: 2,160,252 (based on internal data).
  
• The average distance traveled per student for an in-person exam is 53 km, based on data published in the 2020 annual report by the Bank of Spain. The report states that the average distance to access services for the rural population in Spain is 26.49 km. This figure must be doubled to account for round-trip travel.
  
• CO₂ emissions per kilometer traveled by car: 0.186 kg. This figure represents the average between the estimate used by Ciclogreen (0.25 kg CO₂/km) and the average emissions of all new cars in the European Union (0.122 kg CO₂/km), according to data from the European Environment Agency in 2019. A higher emission level is assumed, given that the vehicle fleet is older and therefore likely to be more polluting.
  

These methodologies are central to our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, helping us track our impact and identify areas for improvement.

Education, sustainability, and the SDGs: Smowltech’s role

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include 17 global objectives outlined in 2015 to shape the 2030 Agenda. They address economic development, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability.

It is a roadmap that encompasses the economy, social development, and the environment, aiming to eradicate poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.

At Smowltech, we are committed to actively contributing to two of these development goals: SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 13 (Climate Action). Below, we explain our contribution in detail.

SDG 4: Quality Education

SDG 4 aims to ensure inclusive, equitable, and quality education for all. SMOWL supports this through remote solutions that promote equality and ensure ongoing educational access for diverse student profiles.

We contribute in six core areas:

1. Privacy protection

Our remote monitoring systems create secure environments while safeguarding student data, preventing malicious behaviors like stalking or grooming.

We comply with local data privacy laws in every market where our proctoring tools are offered, using end-to-end encryption and advanced authentication methods throughout the assessment process.

2. Promoting equality

When we talk about equality, we refer first to the reduction of geographic and economic barriers for individuals who are unable to travel to in-person testing centers, made possible through the accessibility we provide.

Secondly, we refer to ensuring equal conditions during assessments by preventing fraud (such as identity impersonation) and unfair advantages through automated and/or human monitoring conducted via various methods (including webcam, audio capture, and more).

We also apply accessibility principles that allow exams to be adapted for students with disabilities or special needs, thereby promoting digital inclusion.

But the benefits of proctoring for equality go even further:

• It enables international certifications in developing countries, as long as individuals have access to a computer and Internet connection.
  
• It facilitates professional training in rural areas, helping to reduce the educational gap between urban and rural communities.
  

In this way, all students can take exams with the confidence that they are participating in fair assessments under equal conditions.

3. Transparency and ethics

At all times, students taking exams with SMOWL are informed about what types of data will be collected during the assessment and how that data will be used.

In this way, we promote ethical proctoring that ensures equal access to information, empowering individuals to make informed decisions.

Along the same lines, and in keeping with the digital ethics that define us, we implement solutions that reduce not only human bias but also potential algorithmic bias.

How do we approach this? Through measures such as regular audits of our systems, calibration of detection thresholds, and internal improvement initiatives like our National Security Scheme certification and our compliance with ISO 27001 standards.

We also actively gather feedback from our clients and continuously update our models to ensure fairness, transparency, and reliability.

4. Objectivity and fairness

The detection systems we develop are non-invasive solutions capable of identifying suspicious behavior while avoiding the personal biases that can occur in assessments conducted solely by humans.

We provide monitoring and incident reports so that instructors or institutions can evaluate user behavior during the exam. These resources vary depending on the proctoring plan selected. Examples include audio and video recordings, application usage tracking, and facial behavior analysis.

This enhances objectivity and fairness in the certification of knowledge and helps build trust between users and your project.

5. Strategic international collaboration

Online accreditation enables fully remote undergraduate and postgraduate programs. 

It also makes it possible to establish international collaborations between universities, helping to democratize access to prestigious education that would otherwise be out of reach.

6. Innovation and performance

SMOWL delivers high performance even on low-bandwidth connections, ensuring that users don’t have to sacrifice innovation for accessibility.

SDG 13: Climate action

With regard to SDG 13, at Smowltech we actively contribute to this climate-focused goal through our sustainable proctoring technology, which helps reduce CO₂ emissions, among other key areas that we’ll explain below.

1. Reduced transportation emissions

The SMOWL proctoring system eliminates unnecessary travel, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation.

This is no minor issue, especially considering that road transport accounts for one-fifth of the European Union’s total emissions, according to data published by the European Parliament.

2. Less physical resource use

One of the advantages of SMOWL’s online monitoring systems is the reduction in paper usage, which is otherwise essential for traditional written exams.

In doing so, we help conserve forest resources and lower the carbon footprint associated with paper production.

Along these lines, we enable educational institutions to operate more sustainably and improve their environmental impact. In other words, we contribute to the green digital transformation of the education sector.

3. Sustainable corporate training

Companies can also benefit from digitalization, as remote certifications eliminate the need to gather employees in a single location, reducing both costs and the environmental impact of professional training.

Additionally, it makes it easier to implement continuous training programs without disrupting productivity during potentially challenging periods.

4. Sustainable development

Another aspect to consider is how service sizing is handled within a company. Regarding SMOWL’s proctoring plans, we eliminate this issue by offering our clients scalable solutions tailored to their needs.

This allows them to properly size the resources they require and grow in a controlled and efficient manner. 

Similarly, since our proctoring integrates with most LMS (Learning Management Systems), organizations and institutions that already have a learning management platform can continue using it without the need to invest in a new one and incur unnecessary duplicate costs.

As you’ve seen, digitalization with Smowltech can be a great ally in protecting the environment.

The social and environmental value of Smowltech in EdTech transformation

As a conclusion, we list 9 factors that demonstrate Smowltech’s social and environmental value and contribute to the transformation of educational technology (EdTech) in today’s information societies:

1. We democratize access to education, eliminating geographical and accessibility barriers, even in crisis situations such as pandemics.
   
2. We promote educational equity by reducing transportation, accommodation, and physical material costs (beyond a computer and Internet connection), and ensuring equal opportunities.
   
3. We improve educational quality by guaranteeing academic integrity and personalization.
   
4. We foster digital inclusion by encouraging the development of essential technological skills in educational, social, and professional settings of the 21st century.
   
5. We participate in reducing the carbon footprint by avoiding travel and reducing the need to build and maintain exam centers.
   
6. We contribute to the conservation of natural resources by fully digitizing the evaluation process and minimizing waste management related to paper and disposable office supplies.
   
7. We promote the efficient use of technology by leveraging existing devices that do not require additional infrastructure, for example, using computers already available in homes.
   
8. We drive purposeful innovation through resources and tools that help solve social and environmental problems without compromising quality.
   
9. We offer scalable solutions for sustainable growth in assessments and access to the latest technological tools such as artificial intelligence.
   

In addition to all these benefits, as you know, the positive impact of our proctoring systems can be objectively measured through data such as:

• Tons of CO2 avoided by eliminating travel.
  
• Number of students benefiting from accessibility.
  
• Amount of paper saved thanks to digitalization.
  
• Hours of travel avoided, enabling a better work-life balance and allowing people to achieve their goals and grow without time barriers.
  

SMOWL is proof that technology can be profitable while generating positive social and environmental impact.