Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.74
Liaison Jennifer Lamy
Submission Date March 30, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Emerson College
OP-2: Outdoor Air Quality

Status Score Responsible Party
-- 1.00 / 1.00 Amy Elvidge
Sustainability Coordinator
Campus Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have policies and/or guidelines in place to improve outdoor air quality and minimize air pollutant emissions from mobile sources on campus?:
Yes

A brief description of the policies and/or guidelines to improve outdoor air quality and minimize air pollutant emissions from mobile sources:

We follow Massachusetts and US EPA clean air policies.
Emerson has committed to retaining the core of campus as a pedestrian campus accessible without the use of a personal vehicle. These policies are central to campus character & safety. One of the components of furthering this strategy is the promotion of the local public transit student T-pass program and the Hubway bicycle docking system throughout the city. Students are not provided with parking passes and are informed by Student Affairs and Orientation staff not to bring personal vehicles. Emerson has signed up to participate with the MBTA as part of a first-year experience pilot program to promote use of public transit over ride sharing applications like Uber and Lyft,

Additionally, staff and faculty are offered pre-tax public transit passes to promote the use of transit.

Facilities Management & Housing & Dining Services (the two largest operational departments on campus) have issued guidelines to prohibit idling of service vehicles.

In addition, Emerson Police can ticket and enforce the Air Pollution Control Commission's (APCC) MGL Chapter 90, Section 16A for idling over five minutes.
Section 16A. No person shall cause, suffer, allow or permit the unnecessary operation of the engine of a motor vehicle while said vehicle is stopped for a foreseeable period of time in excess of five minutes. This section shall not apply to (a) vehicles being serviced, provided that operation of the engine is essential to the proper repair thereof, or (b) vehicles engaged in the delivery or acceptance of goods, wares, or merchandise for which engine assisted power is necessary and substitute alternate means cannot be made available, or (c) vehicles engaged in an operation for which the engine power is necessary for an associate power need other than movement and substitute alternate power means cannot be made available provided that such operation does not cause or contribute to a condition of air pollution. Whoever violates any provision of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars for the first offense, nor more than five hundred dollars for each succeeding offense.


Has the institution completed an inventory of significant air emissions from stationary campus sources or else verified that no such emissions are produced?:
Yes

Weight of the following categories of air emissions from stationary sources::
Weight of Emissions
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) 0.74 Tons
Sulfur oxides (SOx) 0.02 Tons
Carbon monoxide (CO) 0 Tons
Particulate matter (PM) 0.55 Tons
Ozone (O3) 0 Tons
Lead (Pb) 0.00 Tons
Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) 0 Tons
Ozone-depleting compounds (ODCs) 0 Tons
Other standard categories of air emissions identified in permits and/or regulations 0 Tons

A brief description of the methodology(ies) the institution used to complete its air emissions inventory:

Sightlines, our benchmarking contractor, provides us with MMbtus of our Scope 1 natural gas consumption and associated CH4, CO2 and N2O emissions.

I was able to calculate the additional emission sources using EPA's AP-42: Compilation of Air Emission Factors.


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Not listed:
0.397 tons TOCs
0.198 tons VOCs
0.1367 CH4

No data for CO


Not listed:
0.397 tons TOCs
0.198 tons VOCs
0.1367 CH4

No data for CO

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.