Get Some Perspective!

During a keynote session at Offshore Europe last month, Professor Paul De Leeuw posed a series of questions to wake up and engage the audience. He asked the assembled group to raise a hand if their answer was yes:

• On a typical morning, would your breakfast include a glass of fruit juice? (A third raised their hand)
• On your way to work do you buy a coffee from a cafe or shop? (Half of the audience raised their hand)
• If you own a car, when you fill that car with fuel, do you think the cost of fuel is expensive? (Almost every person raised their hand)

He then showed an info-graphic of the cost per litre of each item, unleaded fuel was the cheapest at ￡1.13 per litre, next was the orange juice at around ￡2.50 per litre, but way out in front was the coffee at almost ￡6 per litre!

Though the purpose of the exercise was to raise the point of accessibility and affordability of fuel, it highlighted something else; when comparing data sets, remember to check you are comparing like for like.

Data can be a useful ally to affect change. Conversely, if you’re not careful, it can just as easily hide a warning something is wrong or trick you into believing the status quo to be acceptable. I doubt many of the audience had ever thought they were getting a bargain every time they filled their car tanks! However, when each item was compared at a price per litre it seemed exactly that, a bargain!

Relate this to how you manage you refrigerant gasses, no doubt all your refrigerant gasses are measured in kg. However, not all gasses are equal. A true comparison would be to convert the gasses using their global warming potential to look at the CO2 equivalent for each gas. When drawing conclusions from your data, perspective is everything.