Air quality impacts of electricity purchase and air travel by organizations
File(s)
Published version
OA Location
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
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 (54–123)/tCO2 (electricity purchase) and $265 (192–337)/tCO2 (air travel), compared to ∼$170–200/tCO2 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.
Date Issued
2025-12-12
Date Acceptance
2025-11-20
Citation
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 2025, 20 (12)
ISSN
1748-9326
Publisher
IOP Publishing Ltd
Journal / Book Title
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume
20
Issue
12
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
License URL
Identifier
10.1088/1748-9326/ae21f9
Subjects
air quality
air travel
AVIATION EMISSIONS
CHEMISTRY
COSTS
decarbonization
electricity purchase
Environmental Sciences
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
METAANALYSIS
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
MODEL DESCRIPTION
MORTALITY
NITROGEN-DIOXIDE
organization
PERFORMANCE
Physical Sciences
POLLUTION
Science & Technology
TERM OZONE EXPOSURE
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
124056
Date Publish Online
2025-12-05