Boston hosts first-ever Air Quality Summit

Boston Public Schools is upholding these values through its indoor air quality monitoring programme. Utilising its existing framework of 4,000-plus sensors across all 119 schools, BPS is currently leveraging a City of Boston Community Clean Air Grant to develop a comprehensive action plan aimed at reducing student and staff exposure to indoor air pollution.

Developed in partnership with Boston University researchers, this system empowers BPS’s 48,593 students and 11,720 staff to monitor temperature, humidity, airborne particulate matter, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide levels in every BPS classroom and take precautions to protect their health during pollution events.

Other City-led efforts to improve air quality and health include the Community Clean Air Grant Programme, an annual initiative administered by the Air Pollution Control Commission. Funded primarily by revenue from parking freezes, this programme empowers local nonprofits to spearhead community-driven monitoring, education, and pollution abatement work.

“Air pollution does not respect neighbourhood boundaries or city limits, which is why a coordinated regional strategy is absolutely essential”

In tandem with these grants, the City is actively deploying street-level sensor networks to track the impacts of roadway reconstructions along major transit corridors like Cummins Highway. The City is also leading a landmark pilot alongside the Boston Housing Authority, Codman Square NDC, and Boston University to transition Dorchester residents to healthy, clean induction cooking.

Complementing these built-environment interventions, the City also directly accelerates outdoor cooling and ambient filtration by planting more than 2,000 new trees per year, prioritising environmental justice neighbourhoods. Boston’s tree canopy has grown by more than 200 acres since 2019, providing shade and neighbourhood beautification while reducing air pollution and heat.

“Air pollution does not respect neighbourhood boundaries or city limits, which is why a coordinated regional strategy is absolutely essential,” said Dr Tori Hass-Mitchell, summit organiser and air quality manager at the City of Boston. “This summit was a pivotal step in pulling City and State programs out of their traditional silos, publicising cutting-edge research, and forging the regional connections needed to scale this work while serving the day-to-day health needs of our residents.”

Throughout the day, participants collaboratively established the initial groundwork for Boston’s 10-Year Air Quality Roadmap. The City will actively move these priorities forward by mapping the regional ecosystem of past and current monitoring efforts, standardising science across cross-sector partnerships, and aligning local actions with shifting funding landscapes to secure long-term public health victories.