> ## 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.
# Products & materials
A **Product** (LCA) is a modeled footprint with a bill of materials - its Inputs point to **Elements** (Materials, Energy, Transport, or Process), to sub-Products, or to Datasets directly. A **Material** is one kind of Element; it gets its impacts by referencing a **Dataset** directly rather than modeling its own BOM. **Datasets** are the original source of impact data. See [Data Model](/docs/data-model) for the full picture.
API documentation: [Product ](/api-reference/v1/product), [Material ](/api-reference/v1/material), [Database search ](/api-reference/v1/database)
### Attributes
| Attribute | Type | Description | Example |
| :--------------------- | :---------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :----------------------------------- |
| uuid | string | The unique identifier | 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000 |
| name | string | The name of the material | Steel |
| sku | string | The stock keeping unit | ST123 |
| unit | Unit | The unit of measure | kg |
| weight | Amount | The user-declared weight of the material | `{ quantity: 100, unit: "kg" }` |
| packagingWeight | Amount | The user-declared weight of the material's packaging | `{ quantity: 10, unit: "kg" }` |
| modeledWeight | Amount | Read-only. Server-computed sum of the model's A1–A3 product material input weights (Material group "Product"; excludes packaging and ancillary) | `{ quantity: 100, unit: "kg" }` |
| modeledPackagingWeight | Amount | Read-only. Server-computed sum of the model's A1–A3 packaging input weights (Material group "Packaging"); compare against the declared `packagingWeight` | `{ quantity: 12.5, unit: "kg" }` |
| modeledTotalWeight | Amount | Read-only. Gross modeled weight: `modeledWeight` + `modeledPackagingWeight`, derived at read time (a missing addend contributes nothing); present when at least one of the two is present | `{ quantity: 112.5, unit: "kg" }` |
| recycledPercent | number | The user-declared recycled content of the material as a percentage (0–100). A `0` is a declared zero; absent when undeclared | 30 |
| modeledRecycledPercent | number | Read-only. Server-computed weight-weighted average of the contributing inputs' recycled content (0–100); compare against the declared `recycledPercent` | 27.5 |
| startDate | date | The date the model is valid from | 2021-01-01 |
| endDate | date | The date the model is valid until | 2021-12-31 |
| dataQualityIndicators | object | Information about the quality of the material | `{ technologicalDQR: 2, ... }` |
| dataQualityRating | number | A number from 1 to 3 representing the quality of the material | 1 |
| taxonomy | Taxonomy | The category of the material | Steel |
| geoLocation | GeoLocation | The location of the material | Pittsburgh, PA |
| location | Location | The named location of the material | Pittsburgh Warehouse |
| dataSources | DataSource | The source of the data | `[{ name: "ecoinvent" }]` |
| created | date | The date the material was created | 2021-01-01T00:00:00.000Z |
| updated | date | The date the material was last updated | 2021-01-22T00:00:00.000Z |
#### Data Quality
Both of these follow the [Pathfinder framework](https://wbcsd.github.io/data-exchange-protocol/v2#dt-dataqualityindicators),
with some additional fields on the `dataQualityIndicators` object.
The `dataQualityIndicators` object contains information about the quality of the material.
```json theme={"system"}
{
"documentationYear": 2022,
"coveragePercent": 100,
"specificPercent": 0,
"averagePercent": 100,
"technologicalDQR": 2,
"temporalDQR": 2,
"geographicalDQR": 2,
"completenessDQR": 1,
"reliabilityDQR": 1
}
```
The `dataQualityRating` is a number from 1 to 3 that represents the quality of the material (1 being the best).
```json theme={"system"}
{
"dataQualityRating": 1
}
```
### Footprint
The `footprint.CO2e` object holds the CO2e values for the `Product` / `Material`.
```json theme={"system"}
{
"CO2e": {
"totalCarbonFootprint": "1234.5678",
"productCarbonFootprint": "1234.0",
"upstream": "1230.0",
"direct": "4.0",
"downstream": "0.0678",
"A1_A3": "1234.0",
"A1": "1200.0",
"A2": "30.0",
"A3": "4.0",
"A4": "0.5",
"B1": "0.06",
"B2": "0.007",
"B3": "0.0008",
"B4": "",
"B5": "",
"C1": "",
"C2": "",
"C3": "",
"C4": "",
"D": ""
}
}
```
### Diagram
```mermaid theme={"system"}
erDiagram
Material ||--o{ Model : "has"
Footprint ||--|| CO2e : ""
Material ||--|| Footprint : "has"
Material ||--|| Supplier : "product of"
Material ||--|| Taxonomy : "categorized in"
Material ||--|| "(Geo?)Location" : "located at"
Material ||--o{ DataSource : "has"
Material ||--o{ Documents : "has"
Material {
name string
sku string
unit Unit
weight Amount
dataQualityIndicators object
dataQualityRating number
}
CO2e {
productCarbonFootprint decimal
upstream decimal
direct decimal
downstream decimal
A1_A3 decimal
A1 decimal
A2 decimal
A3 decimal
A4 decimal
B1 decimal
B2 decimal
B3 decimal
B4 decimal
B5 decimal
C1 decimal
C2 decimal
C3 decimal
C4 decimal
D decimal
}
```