While a Product (LCA) models the impact of one of the things you make, Activities record the actual flow of materials, energy, and goods through your business — what you bought, what you sold, what you consumed. Activities are how you track Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and roll them up into a corporate carbon account.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.variable.global/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Product (LCA) vs. Activity. A Product (LCA) answers what is the per-unit footprint of this thing? using a model of its inputs. An Activity answers how much did we actually buy or sell, and over what period? - a quantity of an Element over a date range, with a GHG scope and (for Downstream Activities) a customer. The same Element can appear in many Activities, and the Activity’s impact is its quantity multiplied by the Element’s per-unit impact data.
When to use Activities
Use Activities when you want to track real-world flows over a reporting period:| Example | Direction | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| 50,000 kWh of grid electricity consumed in March | Upstream | Scope 2: Electricity |
| 12 t of stainless steel purchased from a supplier | Upstream | Scope 3: Purchased goods and services |
| 800 km of business travel by car | Upstream | Scope 3: Business travel |
| 2,400 chairs sold to a customer | Downstream | Scope 3: Use of sold products |
Anatomy of an Activity
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Description | Short label, e.g. “Steel purchased - Q1” |
| Direction | Upstream (something flowing in - a purchase, consumption, or input) or Downstream (something flowing out - a sale or other output) |
| Product / Element | The Material, Energy, Process, or finished Product (LCA) the Activity is about |
| Quantity + Unit | How much (e.g., 50,000 kWh, 12 t, 800 km) |
| Start / end date | The reporting period the Activity covers |
| Customer | Counterparty for Downstream Activities (set on the Activity) |
| Org | The org unit responsible (e.g., Operations, Procurement, Manufacturing) |
| Scope | GHG Protocol scope and category, e.g. Scope 1: Stationary Combustion, Scope 2: Electricity, Scope 3: Purchased goods and services |
| State | Draft, Pending, Approved, or Rejected |
Supplier and Taxonomy come from the Element, not the Activity. When you pick the Element, its supplier and taxonomy category are inherited by the Activity automatically - change the Element’s supplier or category and every Activity that points to it picks up the change. To change the supplier or taxonomy for a single Activity, swap to a different Element instead.
Creating an Activity
Open Activities and click + Activity
Go to Inventory → Activities and click the + Activity button. A new draft Activity appears.
Set the direction
New Activities default to Upstream - something flowing in (a purchase, consumption, or input). Switch to Downstream if you’re recording something flowing out (a sale). The direction influences which scopes are available and whether the Activity carries a customer.
Pick the Element
Click Select to open the Element picker. Search your Inventory for the Material, Energy, or Process this Activity refers to (e.g., Electricity - Germany grid, Hot-rolled steel sheet). If you haven’t created the Element yet, you can create one or pick a Dataset from the Database tab and Variable will create the Element for you.
The Element you pick is the same kind of Element used in Product (LCA)s. If you’ve already modeled a steel Material for your products, re-use it here - both the Activity and any Inputs in a Product (LCA) that reference it will share the same impact data.
Enter the quantity and dates
Fill in the Quantity and Unit (e.g.,
50000 kWh, 12 t, 800 km). Set the Start date and End date to the reporting period the Activity covers. If you opened Activities from a data request, the dates pre-fill from the request.Set the customer, org, and scope
For
Downstream Activities, pick the Customer. Assign the responsible Org and confirm the GHG Scope.Variable auto-categorizes Scope and Org based on the Element you picked and your previous Activities - a grid-electricity Element typically lands as
Scope 2: Electricity, and Activities that look like prior ones inherit the same Org. You can always override the suggestions; future categorization learns from your overrides.Submit for approval
Click Submit to move the Activity from
Draft to Pending. Once an approver confirms it, the state moves to Approved and the Activity’s emissions are added to your carbon account.Approvals roll up the Org structure. An Activity is approved by a user assigned to an Org unit above the submitter’s own Org unit - so if you’re submitting from a site-level Org unit, your regional or company-level lead approves it, not a peer at the same level. This separation of duties keeps the data trustworthy and is what most third-party verifiers will look for.
Only Approved Activities count toward your carbon account totals. Drafts and pending Activities are hidden from rollups so unverified data doesn’t pollute your reports.
Bulk import
For periodic reporting (utility bills, ERP exports, travel data), it’s often faster to import Activities in bulk than to create them one by one. From the Activities page, click the import button next to + Activity and upload a CSV or XLSX. Variable maps your columns to Activity fields and creates Drafts you can review and approve.Tips
One Activity per period, per Element, per counterparty
Don’t create one Activity per invoice - aggregate by reporting period (month, quarter, year). One “March electricity - Berlin office” Activity is easier to manage than thirty daily ones, and the impact math is identical.
Match the Element's geography to the Activity's location
A grid-electricity Activity for a German factory should point to a German grid Element (or a regional one), not a global average. The closer the geographic match, the more accurate the carbon account.
Use Org units to delegate approvals
Approvals follow the Org structure. Putting Activities under the right Org unit means the right person reviews them - and lets you slice your carbon account by site, region, or business unit.
Re-use Elements between Product (LCA)s and Activities
The Element behind the steel Input in the Product (LCA) of your chair is the same Element that should back your “steel purchased in Q1” Activity. Re-using Elements keeps impact data consistent across product-level and corporate-level reporting.
What’s next
Once you have Activities flowing in, build out reports and reduction plans on top of them.Reports & plans
See your whole company’s footprint in one place — sliced by scope, org, or supplier — then plan how to shrink it