Measurements Matter Most

Monitoring and measuring are not the same.?Nurses monitor a patient’s heart rate by observing a device that is measuring it.?They could measure it manually themselves but technology enables them to observe a machine doing it continuously.?Is one more accurate than the other??Many would argue the machine is but others might differ in that opinion perhaps saying that sensors require calibration or that humans can better count pulse via stethoscope in many cases.?Either way, they’re unequal as monitoring is purposeful observing whereas measuring is quantifying accurately - clearly correlated but distinctly different. Monitoring will confirm if you're alive but measuring will advise how much so!

"The difference between monitoring and measurement in ISO 9001 is that monitoring is used to observe something closely so that you can record or detect, while measurement is used to determine the actual characteristics of something (e.g. sizes, volume, etc.)" - Effivity.com

Similarly, estimating and calculating are not the same.?Estimates are loosely used to predict the certainties of a calculation.?If one wanted to estimate the answer to 10.96 x 3.28, they could simply use 11 x 3 for a good guess but it obviously wouldn’t be the definitive computation.?This is fine when one is simply evaluating a matter but insufficient when substantial settlements must be made.?That doesn’t mean they can’t work hand-in-hand together but it does mean their differences matter.

Estimates use averages in lieu of actuals and this is helpful when the means for absolutely calculating something is difficult.?For example, forestry professionals estimate timber in a field to determine potential value but the sawmill will ultimately validate that value basis calculations on cut wood applied to market pricing.?Ideally, those separate figures are close if everyone does their jobs correctly but nobody expects them to be the same.?Since the final payment must be meticulously proper, so must the determination of value be. Yet everyone in that industry will continue to smoothly use both methods harmoniously for years to come.

In the energy sector, folks have been estimating things like carbon emissions of assets for many years. Sources tell us that global emissions today are over 150 times higher than they were in 1850 which is interesting but questionable because obviously it’s based on assumed data that wasn’t collected then.?So if we’re using those estimates from 1850 to make predictions for 2050 netzero goals, that 200-year delta could matter significantly in outcome analysis.?Again, helpful but harmful simultaneously.

Just as the invention of the tape measure in 1829 changed our world forever so is technology advancing again to alter the way in which we compute carbon emissions.?They used to measure horses in hands because they lacked a more exact means to do so universally and that remains a tradition to this day but you can be certain when someone is insuring a prized racehorse, a specially designed measuring stick is being used and rightly so.?Times have changed.?

What we need today is agreement around the necessity of transitioning from monitored estimations to measured calculations.?Major standards currently in force are built around “estimation methodologies” (i.e., EPA, IMO, etc.) that were acceptable when conceived because technology then didn’t exist for accurate assessments.?The time has come for the downstream maritime industry to embrace advancing technologies that discern the delta between estimations and calculations.?If shipping is about to start adopting carbon taxes to encourage green behaviors, precision computational tools like AI enabled digital twins of chemical and combustion models that can scientifically calculate reported emissions (including those being estimated by sensors) should be used to validate reports reliable stored in a blockchain to keep all data true, transparent and trustworthy.?

“Transparency seeds collaboration.” - John Doerr, author of Measure What Matters

It is one thing to observe a change and altogether another to quantify the value of that change.?Both are needed but let's dispense with ignoring the limited power of the former without the incredible potential of the latter.?Measuring is what matters most!