We live in a measurement-obsessed world. Everyone from international corporations to individuals has started measuring progress using real-time data and analytics. With IoT-enabled devices you can capture, process, and analyze data in real-time. Car insurance companies collect data on how people drive to calculate premiums. Oura rings calculate a person’s readiness score based on pulse-O2 and sleep patterns. Your Nest thermostat tells you how your home-energy consumption measures up versus your neighbors. There’s an onslaught of data-driven information we can tap into. Your business is no different.
We’re living in the golden age of what we’ve coined as the measurement economy. But while we’re data-rich in so many ways, the areas where we’re lacking any semblance of data fidelity may surprise you.
The biggest one is our climate impact. Did you know, for example, that some companies depend on estimates for their emissions data? And that, in many cases, those estimates can be off by up to 40%?
In so many aspects of the economy and our daily lives, estimates simply won’t suffice. A bank wouldn’t accept an estimate on your credit score. You wouldn’t agree to an estimated interest rate on your home. You definitely wouldn’t say yes to an estimated salary. So why would you accept estimates when it comes to something as important as environmental impact? You take 20,000 breaths per day. Air quality matters to each and every one of us. And yet companies are relying on estimates when it comes to their impact on air quality that affect you personally every day. 4.2 million people around the world die prematurely from outdoor air pollution every year. The stakes could not be higher.
Here at Project Canary, we believe estimates simply won’t cut it, especially when it comes to something as important as the future of our planet.
Natural gas has been touted as a “bridge fuel” to help us through the energy transition. Responsibly Sourced Gas (RSG) can help deliver on that promise. Certified RSG has undergone an independent, third-party rating based on assessing qualitative and quantitative environmental performance looking at air, water, land, community, and engineering practices for every wellhead. Relying on established standards for responsible operations is not enough– it’s time to update our expectations of what responsibility means in the midst of the climate crisis. We believe that this assessment and verification process must be coupled with real-time data that accurately measures emission profiles minute by minute, all the way down to parts-per-billion. Quarterly, monthly, and “only the wells from 2016-current” is not an assessment, it’s a guess.
We all know data quality can vary. A heart rate monitor that scans your pulse continuously will be much more accurate than one that checks every few minutes. The same is true of emissions data. While some methods for calculating emissions depend on intermittent data sources (planes, drones, and satellites), others eschew real data for outdated modes of calculating estimates.
Satellite Resolution
(2,000m x 2,000m)
Project Canary Resolution
Project Canary Facility-Level Resolution
(.01m x .01m)
This lack of real-time data has far-rippling repercussions. Most importantly, we cannot measure, mitigate, or eliminate, environmental impact without high-fidelity data that helps operators and leaders make actual informed decisions. Simply put: you can’t improve upon what you can’t measure – or the other version, you measure what you care about. But the effects extend further: investors are using ESG data to evaluate companies and make informed decisions about access to capital. Individuals are using this kind of information to dictate personal buying decisions. Activist employees are leaving en masse. Without accurate data, there’s no way to drive actual change.
By sampling the air every second instead of every 12 hours, only Project Canary delivers on the real-time data promised by the measurement economy.
Measurement is here to stay. It’s time to gather real data for the things that matter most.