Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.66
Liaison Marianella Franklin
Submission Date Sept. 20, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

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

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Richard Costello, PhD
Director
Environment Health and Safety
"---" 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:

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.


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) 73 Tons
Sulfur oxides (SOx) 2 Tons
Carbon monoxide (CO) 16 Tons
Particulate matter (PM) 200 Tons
Ozone (O3) 0 Tons
Lead (Pb) 0 Tons
Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) 4 Tons
Ozone-depleting compounds (ODCs) 0 Tons
Other standard categories of air emissions identified in permits and/or regulations 113 Tons

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

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.


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
---

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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.


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.

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.