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Required attributes for the Cloud for Sustainability shared data model

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Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability Tech Summit November 2024.

This article provides information about the required attributes and rules for the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability shared data model.

Note

The July 2024 release introduced significant flexibility with the Cloud for Sustainability data model by making previously mandatory attributes optional and providing default values. We relaxed constraints on some required attributes where we determined their impact on data quality and stability to be insubstantial. For more information, go to Required attributes for the Cloud for Sustainability data model.

General rules

  • The Name value must always be unique.
  • The Origin Correlation ID value must be unique if specified. However, it isn't typically required.

Notation

The table that follows provides a partial list of the attributes in each entity. It includes only required attributes and attributes that influence the requirement of other attributes via logical dependency rules. The following notation is used in the "Required?" column:

Notation Meaning
Y Required
N Optional
<--<attribute> Required only if <attribute> is specified
Y | <attribute>... Required unless <attribute> is specified
Y <--<attribute> == <value> Required if <attribute> contains <value>

Entity/attribute rules

You can download a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that lists entities and attributes for the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability data model. It shows which attributes are required from the Download Center.

Important

With the August 2024 release, Primary contact on Account is required. For more information about this attribute, including important considerations about importing accounts and contacts, go to Account and contact ingestion behavior.

This table lists more attributes that are required based on the values in other attributes.

Entity Attribute Required?
Emission factor Biogenic CO2 factor unit <--Biogenic CO2 factor
CH4 unit <--CH4
CO2 unit <--CO2
CO2E unit <--CO2E
Heat content unit <--Heat content
HFCs unit <-- HFC
N2O unit <--N2O
NF3 unit <--NF3
Other GHGs unit <--Other GHGs
PFCs unit <-- PFC
SF6 unit <--SF6
Estimation factor Factor value unit <--Factor value
Facility usage detail Area unit <--Area
Unit Conversion factor <--Is base unit == true

Other constraints

Organizational unit type

The value must be one of the values from the following enumeration:

  • Cost Center
  • Department
  • Division
  • Group
  • Team
  • Unit

Factor library type

The value must be one of the values from the following enumeration:

  • Custom
  • Demo
  • Standard

Factor library - library type

The value must be one of the values from the following enumeration:

  • Estimation factor library
  • Emission factor library

Data quality type

The value must be one of the values from the following enumeration:

  • Actual
  • Estimated
  • Metered

Article history

Date Description
July 23, 2024 Updated with a note about relaxed required attributes, first mentioned in Enter data more quickly with fewer required attributes in our release plan documentation.

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