Transportation accounts for over 90% of all emissions produced by the Northwest School. In the years 2016-2019, the NWS annually produced an average of 1,160 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. Air travel accounts for about 69% of transportation emissions and 62.5% of all NWS emissions. Air travel produces the most emissions, and it will be more difficult to reduce these emissions. This is because in most cases there is not alternative to air travel when travelling internationally. The second largest producer is commuting, which produces 25% of all transportation emissions.

The chart on the right shows the transportation emissions excluding international student travel. Though it accounts for about 82% of all transportation emissions, this is a number that cannot be easily reduced. Air travel is the only way for most international students to travel home, so this number was excluded from the graph to better show the emissions that could more easily be reduced.

The NWS buses are the only type of transportation that are under scope one of emissions, meaning the emissions produced from the buses are completely under control of The Northwest School. NWS bus use can be reduced by changing our busing habits. The table above shows the breakup of emissions from different categories of busing.

Single occupancy vehicles account for nearly half of the emissions produced by commuting among faculty and students. This being said, in the 2018-2019 school year, only 25% of students commuted to school in a single occupancy vehicle. For students, SOV is the highest emitting commuting type, yet between SOV, carpool, and public transit, SOV is the least common type of commuting mode. Although commuting is Scope 3, by encouraging community members to use more energy efficient commuting modes, a large impact could be made.

Over 70% of emissions produced by faculty are from SOV, while only 39% of student's emissions are from SOV. The student emissions break up between SOV, carpool, and public transit is fairly even, though still favoring SOV.