The measurement ladder

The 10% that survives

How the number is captured

Estimation tools have a place — just not this one

What tightening reporting rules do to spend-based estimates — and what to measure at the source instead.

Every emissions number carries a tier, whether or not anyone says so out loud. It is a measure of how close the figure is to what actually happened.

As reporting standards tighten, the tier of your inputs stops being a technical footnote and becomes the difference between a claim that holds and one that evaporates.

Emissions accounting runs on a three-rung ladder, and the rung you are standing on determines what you can defend.

Only Tier 3 produces a number that can be attached to a unit of sold commodity — which is the whole requirement for a supply-chain reduction. The lower rungs are useful for scale and planning; they are not defensible per-purchase.