Environment

Air Quality and Emissions Reductions

Tools, resources, and information about local air quality and ongoing efforts in the region to reduce air pollution.

Air Quality and Emissions Reductions

Air quality is an important aspect of ecological and public health. Air pollutant sources in Southeastern Massachusetts can come from various sources, including familiar and seemingly harmless parts of our everyday lives. Emissions from vehicles, gas and oil home heating systems and electric power generating stations release harmful gases into the atmosphere at low concentrations that, collectively, can degrade air quality and lead to increased rates of asthma and other respiratory issues.

In order to improve our environment and public health, SRPEDD provides communities with tools and resources to:

Understand what contributes to local air quality conditions.
Recognize local areas of poor air quality that can impact residents' health.
Identify potential ways to reduce pollutants, and
Track emissions rates and trends across the region.

Pollutants of Concern

The below Air Quality and Pollutants Story Map provides geographic and quantitative information about pollutant concentrations across the region. Recognizing distribution patterns and trends of pollutant concentrations can help understand and improve public health and municipal planning. As our region strives to continually reduce these pollutants, these tools can be a resource for identifying geographic concentrations of pollution and strategize how to protect those most vulnerable through projects, plans and grant funding. This was created in preparation of the Regional Resilience Plan and working with the Transportation Department work on lowering fuel emissions.

The Air Quality Story Map was created as part of SRPEDD's Regional Resilience Planning and in support of the Southeastern Massachusetts Metropolitan Planning Organization's (SMMPO) performance targets for reducing vehicle fuel emissions.

Climate Pollution Reduction Planning

SRPEDD has a Climate Pollution Reduction Grant from EPA, authorized through the Inflation Reduction Act, to develop and implement a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase workforce development for climate-based jobs, and promote equitable development of reductions in overall pollutants. This project includes an inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from each municipality in our region. The plan inventories emissions and recommends reduction strategies across the following key sectors: Industry, Energy, Transportation, Waste, Buildings, and Natural and Working Lands.

Coming Soon: Later in 2025, we plan to launch a dashboard here that displays green house gas emissions in the region by sector and by municipality, emissions reduction measures identified in the CCAP, and ongoing trends in emissions to track implementation progress.

CPRG Project Page

Transportation Congestion and Emissions

SRPEDD Transportation Planning staff, in collaboration with the Southeastern Massachusetts Metropolitan Planning Organization (SMMPO), track key public health and safety metrics in the Southeastern Region. The SMMPO adopted MassDOT’s performance targets for reliability, congestion, and emissions on January 17, 2023.

For more information on these emissions goals and performance measures, please click here.

Environment

Air Quality and Emissions Reductions

Air Quality and Emissions Reductions

Contact Information

Pollutants of Concern

Climate Pollution Reduction Planning

Transportation Congestion and Emissions