Air quality impacts of electricity purchase and air travel by organizations

Yuang Chen , Florian Allroggen, Sebastian David Eastham, Evan M Gibney, William Cummin Clark, Noelle Eckley Selin 

Organizational climate actions often prioritize greenhouse gas reductions without considering other impacts such as improved air quality from reduced fossil fuel use. While air quality benefits of large-scale policies are well studied, those of organization-level activities are more uncertain. We quantify the impact of organizations' fossil fuel use from electricity purchasing and air travel on climate and air quality using a system-level approach, with data from two universities and one corporation based in greater Boston. We use energy system and aviation emission models to estimate marginal emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollution precursors, and compare monetized air quality impacts calculated using an atmospheric chemistry-transport model with climate impacts from the same activities. Organizational activities were associated with air quality damages of ~$88/tCO2 (electricity purchase) and ~$265/tCO2 (air travel), compared to ~$170–200/tCO\2 in climate damages (2015 USD). Air quality impacts vary spatially, with renewable energy purchases and short-haul flight segments having proportionally more impacts in the US Northeast. Activities with the same CO2 emissions can have very different overall monetized benefits, suggesting organizations seeking broader sustainability impacts should consider air quality alongside direct climate impacts.