Guide to Estimating Multi-Modal Commuting Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Abstract

A greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory is emerging as the preferred tool used to address a climate action plan. It enables an institution to measure progress toward desired goals, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, setting standards, and creating time lines to measure progress. GHG emissions are categorized in three different scopes based on the source of origin. Measuring faculty, staff, and student commuting emissions pertains to Scope 3 of a GHG inventory. One method to track the impact of transportation initiatives that reduce GHG emissions caused by commuting is to conduct periodic surveys of commuting activities. This must be done in a consistent manner so comparisons can be made year to year. The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Office of Sustainability (OS) has conducted a campus-wide survey every two to four years asking respondents to discuss their UIC-related commuting habits. The OS developed a tool that uses a multimodal analysis to convert the results of the campus commuting survey into an output that can calculate the emitted GHGs for each mode. The goal of this case study was to formalize and narrow the process of deriving valid data for the calculation of GHG emissions created by the traveling and commuting activities in a campus community by sector (students, faculty, and staff). The case study provides a quality assurance/quality improvement (QA/QI) process that is applicable to other entities that desire to track and report commuting emissions.