In the Matching section, you connect your collected activity or consumption data to appropriate impact references.
Impact references can come from:
Integrated databases (e.g. EcoInvent, Agrifootprint, Agribalyse, Exiobase, etc)
Custom references you add yourself, such as:
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)
Supplier-specific or internally defined impact factors
For custom references, we strongly recommend providing supporting documentation for your declarations. This ensures a transparent, traceable, and audit-ready dataset.
Each dataset you collect must be matched to an impact reference in order to contribute to the impact results. In general all Matching sections work the same way; connect an impact reference to activity/consumption data by:
Start by clicking on a material/activity name, after which the material detail page will come up.
Click on the Edit button, which will allow you to add an impact reference to your material/activity.
The different tabs allow you to select an impact reference from different impact databases. See an explanation of how to choose an impact reference here.
An impact reference is now linked to your material and the resulting environmental impact is automatically calculated.
The different chapters in the Matching section are listed below with a short description of why and how they should be used.
When assessing the environmental footprint of Products, this is a crucial step to create insights.
An important step to ensure your Inbound and Outbound transport distances are being assessed correctly, as these addresses are used to calculate transport distances. When adding addresses in you Purchase and Sales orders, in the Facilities overview or in the BOMs, these addresses are searched for on a map. Sometimes the addresses are unclear and cant be found, or an incorrect location is found. The Accuracy score in this section allows you to quickly assess addresses that have a low confidence score.
When adding primary Packaging materials to Products, these materials also need to be matched to impact references. These are kept separate from the Product materials so that insightful scenario analyses on just Packaging materials can be done later.
Additives that cannot directly be added to a BOM (e.g. Dye, Soap for washing, etc.) are sometimes included in a production process in a facility. These can be added in the facility chapter. A match for these consumables can be made in this section.
When carrying out a corporate footprint assessment, some activity/consumption data is only available in expenditure units. This section allows matching expenditure data to expenditure based databases (e.g. Exiobase).
Production processes often generate waste streams that need to be treated (e.g. offcuts, sludge, wastewater). This section lets you match these residual flows to impact references for their end-of-life treatment, so the impact of disposal or recovery is included in the results.
This chapter allows you to connect transport modes to specific impact references (e.g. Containership, Truck, etc).
This chapter allows you to connect travel modes to specific impact references (e.g. Electric vehicles, Train, etc).