Data model

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Products, Elements & Datasets

Datasets are the original source of impact data (emission factors). They can come from databases like ecoinvent, be shared by other companies, or be created by the user. A Product (also called an LCA) is a modeled footprint - it has a bill of materials (a Model with many Inputs) and calculates its impacts from them. An Element is a named, reusable source that an Input points to. Materials, Energy, Transport, and Process are all kinds of Element - they live in your Inventory and can be referenced by Inputs across many Products. A Material is one kind of Element. It gets its impacts by referencing a Dataset directly rather than modeling a bill of materials. You add metadata like supplier, SKU, and location to it. This modeled-vs-referenced distinction applies to every kind of Element - Materials, Processes, Energy, and Transport can each either be modeled (with their own BOM) or reference a Dataset.

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Models & Inputs

An Input is a line item in a Product’s bill of materials. It carries a quantity and unit, and points to an Element - a Material, Process, Energy, or Transport - or, in some cases, to another Product directly. The Input’s calculated CO₂e is its quantity multiplied by the emission factor from the source’s Dataset.

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Where an element is used

Inputs point down from a Product to the Elements it consumes. Reading that relationship in reverse — every Product and assembly that depends on a given Element — is the “Where it’s used” view. In the app it walks the bill of materials upward to every top-level product, grouped by company, annotated with the element’s contributed amount at each level.

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Activity

An Activity represents the actual flow of materials through the system. Activities are a quantity of Product, Material, or Transportation with a resulting CO₂e value.

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Diagram