Glimpact philosophy
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🔗 European Global Impact Score 🇫🇷
Here's a quick recap. To evaluate the impact of any object (be it a component, electricity mix, or finished good), we need to create a new entity. This entity will hold one or more analysis cases for the specific category of the object we are assessing.
Glimpact’s logic
In this article, we aim to delve deeper into the categories, examining their various versions (referentials) and forms (in which you can fill in the activity data in order to assess the impact of an analysis case).
We briefly touched on this earlier: a category specifies an object of study. This could be anything that can be assessed, from raw materials and processes to finished goods or media campaigns, etc. categories reffering to a finished good or organisation, adheres to a specific impact assessment methodology. Whenever possible, we use a PEFCR, OEF, or an internal PCR (Product Category Rules). The latter is used if Europe has not yet addressed this specific category. Therefore, the scope of a category is often directly defined by the methodology it follows.
Examples of entity categories
Just like entities and analysis cases, categories also have their specific and unique IDs - no need for jealousy! These IDs are particularly useful when importing data through TSV files or an API.
Therefore, it's clear that you can create entities and analysis cases across various categories. This is crucial as we move on to our next topic - forms!
Now you understand that your analysis case, which is contained within a specific entity category, will be the focus of your assessment.
The form is the user interface where you can input all the activity data for your analysis case, which will then allow you to evaluate its impact. Each category evaluates different objects and therefore, each has its own unique form! However all forms follow the same logic.
Let’s take the example of a component form, you can see that it is divided into 2 main areas (cf picture):
The meta data: Which are general information about your entity, such as who created it, when etc.
The activity data: Specific data about your entity, used by the calculation engine to provide environmental impacts
Composition of a form
To evaluate our previously created analysis case, you need to fill in the activity data on the form.
The previous example of form is divided in 2 main sections:
That's why different categories have different forms, as the data required varies depending on the type of entity being evaluated. For example, an apparel form would require more information because it needs to collect data about the distribution stage, packaging, and so on.
Occasionally, the methodology for a specific category may evolve, or we may identify a necessary update. In these cases, it could be necessary to collect more activity data or to do so in a different manner, requiring an adaptation of the form. To accommodate these changes, we create a new version for the entity category. This new version is referred to as a new referential. Because referentials may vary and are not always fully compatible, you will notice that some functionalities are restricted when dealing with different referentials.
But don't worry, as an external user, you'll always have the most recent version of the referential without noticing any changes!