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Ruben Aguiar
Ruben AguiarSoftware Development at Lune
Lifting the lid: Eclipsing industry standards with enhanced flight emission estimates
To change the climate status quo, we must go above and beyond industry standards. We need to raise the bar, and then raise the bar again.July 30, 2024
Lifting the lid: Going beyond industry standards with enhanced flight emission estimates

Did you know industry-standard flight emission estimates have a ± 50% inaccuracy range? Only by accurately measuring flight emissions, can companies effectively manage them and achieve their net zero goals. This is why Lune’s enhanced flight emissions estimates now eclipse industry standards. 

Flying is one of the most carbon-intensive activities. Whether you’re measuring airfreight or business travel flight emissions, they must be managed. However, only high-quality data can inform climate compliance and effective decarbonisation. If you want to get to net zero, precision counts.

Why are industry-standard flight emission estimates insufficient?

Industry-standard (GLEC) flight emission estimates have ± 50% inaccuracies. These inaccuracies are the result of calculating emissions using industry averages. 

Specifically, they average two different factors: aircraft configuration (belly freight or freight) and distance (short- or long-haul). This means that flight details like aircraft type, capacity and fuel efficiency are not taken into account. 

Missing these significant details means the flight emission estimate has a lot of uncertainty (± 50%).

Imagine setting a budget of $100 for your weekly groceries, but due to price fluctuations and different store pricing, you could spend anywhere from $50 to $150. Suddenly, that ± 50% really matters — and it’s the same for flight estimates. 

Analogy: box plot of a $100 food budget with ± 50% uncertainty

To change the climate status quo, we must go above and beyond industry standards. We need to raise the bar, and then raise the bar again. This is why Lune’s emission calculations eclipse industry standards, including flight estimates.

What enhancements has Lune made?

To go above and beyond the status quo, Lune has made two new enhancements to its flight emission calculations:

  1. Greater granularity: by using flight numbers to select aircraft-specific fuel usage factors
  2. More accurate distances: by accounting for transhipments

Only accurate emission reporting can accelerate effective decarbonisation.

By embedding enhanced flight emission calculations into their platform, Lune customers can win new deals, cultivate customer loyalty, and cement their reputation as an industry leader. These calculations support their end-users in creating decision-useful emission reports, informing effective decarbonisation, and confidently fulfilling emission data requests from partners. 

How does Lune enhance flight emission calculations?

To bring granularity to Lune’s emission calculations, our methodology now uses the actual aircraft type for the flight. By matching flight numbers to real data, we can discover what aircraft was used for that flight. 

This information allows us to use detailed fuel emission tests for the specific aircraft (provided by the European Environment Agency) to estimate how much fuel was consumed in that flight. 

And now, since we have information about the aircraft model and configuration, we can accurately determine the total cargo capacity of the aircraft. This allows us to determine the share of emissions the shipment is responsible for with higher precision.

Additionally, by resolving flight numbers to real data we can account for transhipments and even use actual flown distance for past flights.

Step by step process of how Lune calculates flight emissions. Process: calculating the distance, identifying the aircraft using the flight number, calculate fuel useage using this data, and multiplu

Go beyond industry standards and delight your customers

Companies that embed emission calculations into their platforms are capturing snowballing climate demand. Ready to outmanoeuvre competitors by offering best-in-class flight emission calculations to your customers? 

To learn how you can integrate Lune’s white-label API into your platform in 2-4 weeks, request a demo.

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