University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
OP-2: Outdoor Air Quality

UT System Policy 169, Sec. 8 Climate Protection Practices states that Institutions will pursue the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while maintaining enrollment accessibility for every eligible student, enhancing research, promoting community service, and operating campus facilities more efficiently. Sec. 9 further outlines Sustainable Transportation Practices that minimize air pollutant emissions from mobile sources.

The inventory was a collaborative effort begun by UT Pan-American and the Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) Department (now UTRGV Environmental Health, Safety and Risk Management Department). The first step was for the UT Pan Am EH&S department to contact the campus maintenance department to gather information needed to calculate emissions. This was accomplished via an e-mail sent to the individuals responsible for various areas of the campus. The e-mail requested that the responsible individuals identified all potential sources of air emissions in their areas and included a preliminary listing of typical emission sources at Universities taken from the December 8, 1997 Seminar materials and carried out through 2002. The EH&S department also requested that pertinent data on capacities (i.e., firing rates for boilers) that may affect emission potential be gathered. This information was then compiled and provided to EH&S for its review. Upon completing its review EH&S and UTPA participated in a teleconference to discuss the sources of information, factors that would pose physical or operational limits on emissions potential, and conservative assumptions that might be used in the analysis. The teleconference was also used to identify any additional information that was needed to calculate emissions. This additional information was then gathered by UTPA and provided to EH&S. The information was used along with published emission factors, mass balance principles, and conservative assumptions as appropriate to obtain a conservative estimate of site-wide PTE. The data generated in 2017 was based on the 2002 data and included new pieces of air emission generating equipment as well as empirical calculations to account for inefficiency of older equipment.

UTRGV’s actions to monitor outdoor air quality works towards the sustainability development goal of sustainable cities and climate action by making communities sustainable and combating climate change.