Manage purchase data and emission factor databases

Before you start

You need an Editor role in your Dcycle organization.

Steps

Step 1

Part 1: Enter a purchase record manually. This is the quickest way to add a single purchase — you enter a monetary amount (euros) or a weight amount, and Dcycle calculates the emissions automatically using the Exiobase database.

Step 2

Click “Data” in the left navigation.

Step 3

Click “Categories”.

Step 4

Open the “Purchases and CapEx” category.

Step 5

The “Purchase management” tab shows your purchase records and the total CO2e and spend at the top. Click “Upload purchases” in the top right to add new records.

Step 6

Click “Upload purchases”.

Step 7

A menu appears with two options: “Bulk upload” (CSV/Excel import, or PDF invoices that Leia reads for you) and “Add manually” (one record at a time). Click “Add manually” to open the individual entry form.

Step 8

Click “Add manually”.

Step 9

The manual entry form opens. Fill in the product, supplier, purchase date and expense type (OPEX/CAPEX). Then enter the amount either as a monetary value in euros or as a physical quantity in kilograms. Dcycle will automatically calculate the CO2e emissions using the Exiobase database.

Step 10

Exiobase is Dcycle’s default calculation database for purchases. It uses the euro amount (spend-based approach) or the weight (physical-unit approach) to look up the average emission factor for that category of goods or services. You do not need to set anything — the calculation happens automatically as soon as you save the record. Another spend-based database, CEDA (by Watershed), is also available; you can select it in Part 2.

Step 11

Part 2: Switch the emission factor database for purchases to ecoinvent. This lets you match each raw material to a specific ecoinvent process and version instead of using the default Exiobase factors.

Step 12

Click “Data” in the left navigation.

Step 13

Click “Emission factors” in the Data sub-navigation.

Step 14

The Emission factors page has two tabs: “Configuration by category” (where you choose which database each category uses) and “Custom management” (where you create your own databases — covered in Part 3). Stay on the “Configuration by category” tab.

Step 15

Click the “Purchases” category tile to open its emission factor configuration panel.

Step 16

The panel shows the available databases for purchases — Exiobase is selected by default. To use CEDA (by Watershed), another spend-based database with broader coverage that is updated every year, select it from the database dropdown. To switch to ecoinvent, select it from the same dropdown. Then choose the ecoinvent version and, for each raw material in your purchases, select the matching ecoinvent process.

Step 17

If you are not sure which emission factor to pick, click “Find a factor with Leia”. Describe the purchase or product in your own words; the more context you give, the better the suggestions. Leia proposes a best match and nine alternatives, each with an explanation of why it was suggested. Open any suggestion to see more information, including the emission factor value.

Step 18

Matching correctly matters: pick the ecoinvent process whose system boundary and functional unit best represent what you actually buy. For example, “steel, low-alloyed {RER}” for European low-alloy steel purchases. The version you choose (3.8, 3.9, 3.10…) determines which emission intensity values Dcycle uses.

Step 19

Click “Save changes” to apply the ecoinvent database to the Purchases category. Dcycle will recalculate the emissions for all existing purchase records using the new factors.

Step 20

Part 3: Create your own emission factor database. Once created, it appears as a selectable option in the database dropdown for purchases — alongside Exiobase and ecoinvent — so you can apply your own factors to any purchase category.

Step 21

Click “Emission factors” in the left navigation to return to the main page.

Step 22

Click the “Custom databases” tab.

Step 23

The “Custom databases” tab shows the databases you have already created, plus a “Create a new database” card to add more. Any database you create here will later appear in the database dropdown on the “Configuration by category” screen, so you can apply it to specific categories such as Purchases.

Step 24

Click the “Create a new database” card to start a new custom emission factor database.

Step 25

A creation panel opens. Give your database a name you will recognise later (for example “Supplier factors 2024” or “Ecoinvent custom subset”), choose “Purchases” as the category it applies to, and set the validity period. Then add the individual emission factors — material, value in kg CO2e, and reference unit — for each raw material you want to cover.

Step 26

Once you save the database, go back to “Configuration by category” and click the Purchases tile. Your new database will now appear in the database dropdown alongside Exiobase and ecoinvent. Select it, match each raw material to the corresponding factor in your database, and click “Save changes” to apply it.