How AirScore Works
Founded in 2025 • Built from trusted public environmental data
AirScore transforms trusted public environmental data into a simple 0–100 environmental score for any U.S. address, helping you better understand long-term environmental context before you buy, rent, move, or compare neighborhoods.
Public environmental data, simplified.
What is AirScore?
AirScore is an environmental screening platform that helps people understand the long-term environmental context around any U.S. address.
Instead of searching multiple government databases individually, AirScore brings together publicly available environmental information—including long-term PM2.5 pollution, EPA Superfund sites, Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) facilities, major airports, highways, and current Air Quality Index (AQI)—into one simple report and easy-to-understand 0–100 score.
AirScore is designed for homebuyers, renters, homeowners, real estate professionals, and anyone who wants a clearer picture of the environment surrounding a property before making an important decision.
What AirScore is — and isn’t
AirScore is an informational screening tool. It summarizes public environmental data around an address so you can better understand possible long-term exposure signals and compare locations more easily.
AirScore is useful for:
- Comparing environmental context between addresses
- Spotting nearby pollution sources you may not have known about
- Understanding long-term air quality signals
- Helping you decide what questions to ask next
AirScore is not:
- A guarantee of health or safety
- Medical, legal, environmental, or real estate advice
- A substitute for inspections, testing, or professional guidance
- The sole reason to buy, rent, sell, or avoid a property
A higher score does not mean a location is risk-free, and a lower score does not mean someone will get sick. AirScore should be considered alongside schools, commute, price, flood risk, inspections, local research, and your own comfort level.
The basic idea
Most people check price, schools, commute, and maybe crime before choosing a place to live. Far fewer people check long-term air quality, nearby industrial sites, major highways, airports, or hazardous cleanup sites.
AirScore brings those signals together in one place so the invisible parts of a location become easier to see.
Simple
One score that helps you compare places quickly.
Transparent
A breakdown of the factors behind the score.
Practical
Built for real-world decisions like moving, renting, and homebuying.
Why AirScore Exists
Environmental information is public, but it isn't simple.
Important information about air quality, hazardous waste sites, industrial emissions, airports, highways, and other environmental factors is spread across multiple government agencies and databases. Finding, interpreting, and comparing that information for a single address can take hours.
AirScore was created to organize those public datasets into one straightforward environmental summary, making it easier to compare locations and identify environmental factors that may deserve a closer look.
What goes into the score?
| Factor |
What it measures |
Why it matters |
| PM2.5 |
Long-term fine particulate matter levels |
PM2.5 is one of the most important air pollution signals associated with respiratory and cardiovascular concerns. |
| Superfund |
Distance to EPA-designated hazardous waste cleanup sites |
Some sites may involve long-term contamination concerns depending on pollutants, cleanup status, and exposure pathways. |
| Industrial |
Proximity to TRI-listed facilities that report chemical releases |
Helps identify areas with nearby industrial activity that may be worth researching further. |
| Live AQI |
Current Air Quality Index conditions |
Captures short-term air quality conditions that can affect outdoor activity and day-to-day awareness. |
| Airports |
Closeness to major and regional airports |
Airport operations can contribute to localized emissions, traffic, noise, and ultrafine particle concerns. |
| Highways |
Distance to major highways and heavy road traffic |
Traffic-related pollution can be elevated near busy roadways, especially close to major highways. |
Not every nearby site is dangerous, and not every pollutant affects air the same way. AirScore is meant to summarize public data into a useful comparison signal, not replace professional evaluation.
Where AirScore Gets Its Data
AirScore combines publicly available environmental information from trusted government and public datasets. AirScore does not create or modify these datasets—it organizes them into a single environmental summary that is easier to understand and compare.
| Data source |
What AirScore uses it for |
| EPA National Priorities List |
Superfund hazardous waste cleanup sites |
| EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) |
Industrial facilities reporting chemical releases |
| EPA AirNow |
Current Air Quality Index (AQI) |
| Historical PM2.5 datasets |
Long-term fine particulate pollution estimates |
| Airport databases |
Major and regional airport locations |
| Federal highway datasets |
Major highway proximity |
Factor weights in the current model
AirScore currently weights long-term PM2.5 most heavily, while also accounting for nearby cleanup sites, industrial facilities, live AQI, airports, and highways.
How the score is calculated
AirScore starts from 100 and applies weighted deductions based on each factor’s intensity, distance, or proximity. Closer sources generally matter more than farther sources, while PM2.5 and AQI are treated as air quality intensity signals.
The goal is not to predict someone’s health. The goal is to make environmental context easier to compare across addresses.
Plain English version: a higher AirScore generally means fewer long-term environmental exposure signals were found nearby. A lower AirScore means there may be more nearby factors worth reviewing before making a housing decision.
Who Uses AirScore?
Homebuyers
Compare environmental conditions before making one of life's biggest purchases.
Renters
Understand nearby environmental factors before signing a lease.
Real Estate Professionals
Provide clients with additional environmental context during the home search process.
Why this matters
A house can look perfect online and still sit near a highway, airport, industrial corridor, or cleanup site. Those factors are not always obvious from a listing, a showing, or a neighborhood drive-through.
AirScore helps surface that context earlier, so you can compare places more clearly and decide what level of environmental tradeoff feels acceptable to you.
Check an Address
AirScore is informational only and should be used as one source of context among many.
Last updated: July 2026
