Calculation models

  • Article

A calculation model is the logical representation of the emission or water calculation that runs the calculation methodology that is required to bring activity data and emission factors together, so that the greenhouse gas emissions or water withdrawal and discharge volumes can be calculated.

Several calculation models are included in Microsoft Sustainability Manager. For information about these default models, go to the following articles:

Review existing calculation models

  1. In the left navigation pane, select Calculation models.
  2. You can filter the calculation models by module, such as Carbon activities or (Preview) Water.
  3. Select a model. The logical representation of the model displays, and a side pane shows more details.

Each model includes process steps, such as the source process block that describes the model, the calculation step that calculates consumption factors, and the greenhouse gas or water reporting step that does the calculation to derive the greenhouse gas or water transaction metric as output.

Add a calculation model

  1. On the Action Pane, select New.

  2. A source process block is added. Enter information in all required fields. The required information includes selecting the module, which indicates whether a carbon activity or water calculation model is being created.

    To add a new process block, select the plus sign (+). You will have multiple actions available to you, depending on the selection for the module option in the source block.

    If you select Carbon activities as the module, your available actions include:

    • Estimation factor
    • Condition
    • Calculation
    • Report
    • Report gas

    If you select (Preview) Water as the module, your available actions include:

    • Estimation factor
    • Condition
    • Calculation
    • Report water

  3. For each process step that you want to add, select the plus sign (+) under the last process step that was added. The following process steps are available:

    • Condition – This step enables an if/then condition that determines when the calculation model is used, the calculation is processed, and any actions that follow are reported.

    • Calculation – This step prepares a variable output that can be consumed in the report step. It's an additional calculation that is done before the greenhouse gas or water reporting calculation, such as the creation of a custom factor or a consumption factor. After you select this process step, follow these steps:

      1. In the Category name and Description fields, provide detailed information for future reference.

      2. Select a field for the incoming quantity unit. Select the corresponding unit.

      3. Select the operator and input value. If you want to do a within unit group conversion (such as ton to lb), the input value should be 1.

      4. Enter the unit to assign to output variable.

      5. Enter a name for the output variable.

        Note

        For most streamlined calculations, create separate steps for unit conversions and arithmetic calculations.

        Variable naming best practice: Don't use math functions such as "-" or "*" in variable names. Otherwise, they will be more difficult to use when you use Power Fx.

    • Report – This step does the calculation by using the emission factor that produces the greenhouse gas. To run a report, follow these steps:

      1. In the Emission report value field, select a value. This value is the input for the calculation. It's typically a quantity or a value that was calculated in the previous process step.
      2. Select Unit if the unit is unknown or multiple units are required.
      3. In the Calculation library field, select a library (such as EPA). The selected library should be linked to your emission factors and factor mappings.
      4. In the Emission factor field, select the emission factor. If you're using factor mappings, this emission factor can be linked to an entity of reference data, such as facility. Alternatively, the emission factor can be directly selected in the drop-down list.

    • Report gas – This step calculates a specific gas. It's used when you want to calculate a specific global warming potential (GWP) value. To run a report, follow these steps:

      1. In the Emission report value field, select a value. This value is the input for the calculation. It's typically a quantity or a value that was calculated in the previous process step.

      2. Select Unit if the unit is unknown or multiple units are required.

      3. Select a specific greenhouse gas. To complete the calculation for multiple different greenhouse gases, select the general greenhouse gas.

        This step enables the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) to be calculated from a quantity of a specific greenhouse gas, such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). It's often used in fugitive emission calculations.

    • Report water – This step calculates the value for a specific water transaction type. To run a report, follow these steps:

      1. In the Report value field, select a value. This value is the input for the calculation. It's typically a quantity or a value that was calculated in the previous process step.
      2. Select Unit if the unit is unknown or multiple units are required.
      3. Select a specific transaction type to indicate the water transaction type for which the calculation was performed and needs to be reported.

    • Estimation factor – This step converts proxy data to activity data by using the estimation factors. For example, the estimation factor step can be used to convert hotel night stays to natural gas or electricity, or to convert square footage of leased real estate to electricity or water use. After you select this process step, follow these steps:

      1. Enter the category name and a description. Enter information that is relevant to the process and methods that are used.

      2. For the estimation value, select the quantity data that is being used for proxy data, and select the unit.

      3. Select the estimation factor library.

      4. Select the estimation factor. You can select either a specific factor or, if you're using factor mappings, a reference data category.

      5. Enter a name for the output variable. This variable can be used in other steps, such as the report step, to bring the new calculated value into the corresponding step.

        Variable naming best practice: Don't use math functions such as "-" or "*" in variable names. Otherwise, they will be more difficult to use when you use Power Fx.

Edit a calculation model

  1. Select a calculation model.

  2. Follow one of these steps:

    • To edit an existing process step, select it. Editable fields are shown in the pane on the right.
    • To add a process step, select the plus sign (+) under the last process step that was added. The following process steps are available: Condition, Calculation, and Report. For information about these process steps, see the previous section of this topic.
    • To remove a process step, use the ellipsis (...) in the right corner of the process step.

Create or edit a calculation model by using Power Fx

If you have a custom calculation that goes beyond a standard Quantity × Emission factor (EF) format, you can implement it by using the Excel programming language where Power Fx is enabled directly in the calculation model.

  1. Select a calculation model.

  2. Follow one of these steps:

    • To edit an existing process step, select it. Editable fields are shown in the pane on the right.
    • To add a process step, select the plus sign (+) under the last process step that was added.

  3. In the Condition, Calculation, or Report process step, follow these steps:

    1. Under the name, select Power Fx Experience.
    2. Enter your custom function by using a low-code programming language. For more information about how to write in Power Fx, see Microsoft Power Fx overview.
    3. Select the unit, calculation library, and emission factor.
    4. Save your changes, and close the page.

Calculation profile

The calculation profile is used to configure the calculation models to run against a data set. These calculation models can be mapped by activity connection or any entity in the app, such as reference data or activity data source.

Note

There is a limit on the number of activities that can be calculated in a single calculation job. The easiest way to limit calculation jobs is by narrowing the calculation profile criteria. Because of the complexity of calculations, the current expectation is that you will limit each calculation profile to no more than 50,000 records.

Add a new calculation profile. The following fields are required on the Calculation Profiles page:

  • Name – The name of the calculation profile. Be as specific as possible.
  • Module - Required to specify the module associated with the calculation profile.
  • Emissions source or Activity data source
  • Calculation model per calculation profile – You must select at least one profile.

To apply the filter, follow these steps:

  1. Filter the data to apply to the calculation profile:

    1. Below the And field, select Add to add filters.

      Adding filters.

    2. Find and select the entity to filter by.

    3. Select selection criteria, such as equals.

    4. Finalize the condition for selection (for example, Facility Equals Contoso Factory).

    5. Add rows for additional filters as you require.

  2. Select Automatically run when data is refreshed, unless the calculation is a one-time calculation. If this option is selected, your schedule will match the schedule of the data that is being pulled in by the criteria of your filters.

  3. Name and save the calculation profile.

  4. On the Action Pane, select Run calculation to start the calculation job.

View calculation profiles

The Calculation profiles page contains tiles that show high-level information, so that you can quickly learn the health of your profiles and associated calculation jobs. The information that is available on the tiles includes the status, time of the last run, emission source, and calculation models that have been used. When a tile is selected, a pane on the right side of the page shows summary information and lets you view the calculation profile history.

View the status of calculation profile jobs

  1. In the left navigation pane, select Calculation profiles.

  2. Select the profile to view. The right pane shows high-level summary information.

  3. To view details about the last run and the history of previous calculation jobs, select History in the right pane. Each associated run will have details about every calculation job, such as the time of the last run and the success rate.

  4. To view errors and failed jobs, follow these steps:

    1. Select the name of the most recent calculation job.
    2. View the error code.
    3. View line item details if applicable. These details appear below the errors that are shown.

Edit a calculation profile

  1. In the left navigation pane, select Calculation profiles.
  2. Select the profile to edit.
  3. On the action pane, select the pencil icon to edit. The wizard that you used to create the profile opens.
  4. Edit the desired field.
  5. Save your changes and close the page.

Note: For each calculation profile, when a new calculation is performed, the previous calculation errors and the emissions related to the activities are deleted.