While you don’t have to add materials before building your Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs), it’s a recommended step to make the process more efficient. In this section, you’ll find out:

• How to access the Material Catalog in the PCF Module
• How to add materials into the platform manually
• How to import a material list to save time

Why this is relevant: Getting your materials ready ahead of building PCFs will help make the overall process easier. But if preferred, you can add materials at the point of building your PCFs in the platform too.

What are materials?

Materials are what make up your finished product. More specifically, they’re defined as components, raw materials, substances, or consumables required for the manufacture and assembly of a product. 

When building a PCF, your material profiles help calculate the part of a product’s emissions that come from raw materials. 

How to add a new material to your Materials Catalog (manually)

This quick guide shows you how to prepare for adding materials to your Materials Catalog manually. You can then move on to the appropriate guide depending on your chosen emission factor, as well as material weight if needed.

Preparation

Guidance for using custom emission factors

Guidance for using the M2030 emission factor database

Guidance for adding a material weight per unit

How to import a material list to save time

1. Download the template for uploading a list of your materials to the Material Catalogue, available at the end of this article.
2. Complete the template (refer to the guide below).
3. Upload the completed template to M2030.

💡We recommend using this walkthrough alongside the platform when you import your first materials.

Guidance for populating the import file

Please ensure that for a new import, you download the latest version of the upload file from this article rather than a previously stored copy, as periodic updates are made to the Excel file. 

Material name: Enter the name of the material as it is referred to within your organization. Material ID: Enter the unique reference ID assigned to the material within your organization for internal tracking. Material Source Geography: Enter the geographic origin of the material, using its ISO country code. Emission factor CO2e Value: Enter the emission factor, representing the total greenhouse gas emissions (measured in CO2 equivalent) associated with producing one "emission factor produced unit" of the material Emission Factor Emission Unit: Enter the unit of measurement for the emission factor. For example: kg CO2e t (metric) CO2e t(US)CO2 lbCO2e Note: Only mass-based units are allowable here. Emission factor produced unit: Enter the unit of material production for which the emissions factor is calculated. For example: 1kg of Material 1 litre of Material   Material Weight (kg) per Emission Factor Produced unit: Enter the mass of the material (in kilograms) that corresponds to one "emission factor produced unit" as defined in the emission factor. Primary or secondary source: Indicate whether the emission factor comes from a primary or secondary source. How do I know if my emission factor is primary or secondary? Primary source examples: Supplier-provided Directly measured Audited data Secondary source examples: Industry averages From an emission factor database (M2030 or otherwise) On the spreadsheet: If the emission factor is from a primary source: select TRUE from the dropdown in the template If the emission factor is from a secondary source: select FALSE from the dropdown in the template

Remember: Delete the example rows before you upload your completed file to M2030.

📂 Download materials import template

• Materials Import to M2030.xlsx40 KB