Change SCI from (E * I) + M to (E * R) + M?

[jawache]

In a recent talk at QCon the equation shown on screen was not correct, however, i was an interesting mistake and made me think perhaps it's worthwhile discussion to see if we want to adjust the SCI.

The equation was presented as

(E * L) + M

And the L was described as Location-Based Marginal Carbon Intensity.

Which is err... wrong as per the most recent update of the spec which says Regions Specific Carbon Intensity.

Why is this interesting.

• The I is a bit unusual, we use it to refer to the Carbon Intensity of Electricity but the whole spec is also called Software Carbon Intensity so the use or I might be seen as confusing. The choice of using L indicates the I causes confusion.
• Given we've updated the spec since, we might pick R since the spec now stats region specific carbon intensity.
• That would be phonetically spoken as ERM which is somewhat easier to remember.

I'm not convinced either way but I thought it was interesting enough to warrant a discussion.