Columbia University
OP-2: Outdoor Air Quality

Columbia developed an Idle-Free Campaign to help raise awareness of idling and to educate the community, ultimately helping to meet the NYC and University goals around clean air, greenhouse gas reductions, noise reduction and efficient resource use. http://www.ehs.columbia.edu/IdleFreeCampaign.pdf In July of 2014, Columbia University adopted the following policy to assure compliance with applicable law and to promote the health and safety of its community. Smoking is prohibited in any indoor area, in all University vehicles, and outdoor seating or viewing areas of sports arenas and recreational areas, such as those at Baker Field. Smoking is also prohibited outdoors within 20 feet of all University buildings (including undergraduate housing). Without in any way limiting the general rule, smoking is specifically prohibited in the following areas at the University: auditoriums, classrooms, conference rooms, meeting rooms, laboratories and storage areas, employee or student lounges, theaters, clubhouses, elevators, hallways, stairwells, restrooms, undergraduate apartment buildings or residence halls, gymnasiums, swimming pools, employee or student medical facilities, rooms or areas containing photocopying or other equipment used by employees or students in common, food markets or other retail stores, restaurants, cafeterias and dining facilities (including the Faculty House), and bars or other places in which alcoholic or other beverages are served. Notwithstanding the above descriptions of locations where smoking is prohibited or permitted, smoking is prohibited in any area with signage indicating that smoking is prohibited. Smoking is entirely restricted except for 15 designated outdoor locations. Employees at the Medical Center Campus are required to obey campus-specific smoking policies along with New York Presbyterian Hospital applicable to hospital premises. Violations of the hospital's policies by University employees will be considered violations of this policy. This policy will also be applied to the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Nevis Laboratories unless local laws in those two locations were to require more restrictive practices. Additionally, Columbia contracts with Academy Bus for the shuttle system, which has a no-idling policy for their vehicles. Lastly, Columbia utilizes hybrid or electric vehicles whenever possible to reduce emissions from vehicle exhaust. For more on hybrid/electric vehicle usage, see the transportation section.

Columbia University submits an annual emissions inventory to the NYSDEC using fuel consumption data provided by the Central Plant.

https://research.columbia.edu/content/environmental-health-safety https://sustainable.columbia.edu/content/greenhouse-gas