Calculation models
A calculation model in Microsoft Sustainability Manager is the logical representation of the emission or water calculation that runs the calculation methodology that brings activity data and emission factors together. This methodology calculates greenhouse gas emissions or water withdrawal and discharge volumes.
Microsoft Sustainability Manager includes several calculation models:
Note
Multi-select option set fields aren't supported within calculations in Sustainability Manager.
Review existing calculation models
In Sustainability Manager on the left navigation pane, select Calculations, select Models, and then select the tab for the type of calculation models you want to view, such as Carbon activities.
Select a model. The logical representation of the model displays, and a side pane shows more details.
Each model includes process steps, including the following examples:
- Source process block that describes the model
- Calculation step that calculates consumption factors
- 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
On the top menu, select + New. If Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Manager is activated in your environment, you can either select Create with model builder or create a calculation model with Copilot.
On the New calculation model page, a source process block appears. On the right pane, enter information in all required fields. The required information includes selecting the module, which indicates whether you're creating a carbon activity or water calculation model.
To add a new process block, select the plus sign (+). You can select multiple actions, depending on your 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 Water as the module, your available actions include:
- Estimation factor
- Condition
- Calculation
- Report water
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 extra 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:
In the Category name and Description fields, provide detailed information for future reference.
Select a field for the incoming quantity unit. Select the corresponding unit.
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.
Enter the unit to assign to output variable.
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, because they're more difficult to use in Power Fx.
Report – This step does the calculation by using either an emission factor or a product carbon footprint (PCF) value. To run a report, follow these steps:
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.
Select Unit if the unit is unknown or multiple units are required.
For some scope 3 activities (including categories 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, and 12), you can select a basis for calculation that indicates whether the calculation uses a factor or a PCF value.
For factor-based calculations: In the Calculation library field, select a library (such as EPA). The selected library should be linked to your emission factors and factor mappings. In the Emission factor field, select the emission factor. If you're using factor mappings, you can link this emission factor to an entity of reference data, such as facility. Alternatively, you can directly select the emission factor in the drop-down list.
For PCF-based calculations: The model uses the information on the product footprint linked to each input activity. The calculation multiplies the report value by the value in the selected PCF value column, divided by the Quantity represented value (also in the Product footprint table). The node also performs a unit conversion according to the Unit specified in the Product footprint table. The Is biogenic checkbox determines whether the output emission is marked as biogenic.
The Exit on Success checkbox in report nodes controls the generation of emission records based on conditions set in calculations. Check this box when you want a calculation to generate only one emission record upon successfully meeting a condition in any report node. Leaving it unchecked creates emission records for every report node, potentially resulting in multiple records from one calculation.
Report gas – This step calculates a specific gas. Use this step when you want to calculate a specific global warming potential (GWP) value. To run a report, follow these steps:
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.
Select Unit if the unit is unknown or multiple units are required.
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). You can use this step in fugitive emission calculations.
Report water – This step calculates the value for a specific water transaction type. To run a report, follow these steps:
- 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.
- Select Unit if the unit is unknown or multiple units are required.
- 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:
Enter the category name and a description. Enter information that is relevant to the process and methods that are used.
For the estimation value, select the quantity data that is being used for proxy data, and select the unit.
Select the estimation factor library.
Select the estimation factor. You can select either a specific factor or, if you're using factor mappings, a reference data category.
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 because they're more difficult to use in Power Fx.
Edit a calculation model
Select a calculation model.
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, go to Add a calculation model in this article.
- To remove a process step, use the ellipsis (...) in the right corner of the process step.
Create or edit a calculation model with Power Fx
For custom calculations that go beyond a standard Quantity x Emission factor (EF) format, you can use Excel Power Fx directly in the calculation model.
Select a calculation model.
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.
In the Condition, Calculation, or Report process step, follow these steps:
- Under the name, select Power Fx Experience.
- 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.
- Select the unit, calculation library, and emission factor.
- 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. You can map these calculation models 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 a single calculation job can calculate. The easiest way to limit calculation jobs is to narrow 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.
Note
Multi-select option set fields aren't supported within calculations in Sustainability Manager.
Optionally, if you want to use a different assessment report version for this calculation profile than the default chosen in Settings, you can use the IPCC Assessment Report Version field to do so. To learn more about assessment report versions and the way they're used in Microsoft Sustainability Manager, go to Global Warming Potentials (GWPs).
To apply the filter, follow these steps:
Note
If the filter control doesn't load initially, clear your cache and refresh the browser.
Filter the data to apply to the calculation profile:
Below the And field, select Add to add filters.
Find and select the entity to filter by.
Select selection criteria, such as equals.
Finalize the condition for selection (for example, Facility Equals Contoso Factory).
Add rows for other filters as you require.
Select Automatically run when data is refreshed, unless the calculation is a one-time calculation. If you select this option, your schedule matches the schedule of the data that is being pulled in by the criteria of your filters.
Name and save the calculation profile.
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 available on the tiles includes the status, time of the last run, emission source, and calculation models 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
In the left navigation pane, select Calculation profiles.
Select the profile to view. The right pane shows high-level summary information.
To view details about the last run and the history of previous calculation jobs, select History in the right pane. Each associated run has details about every calculation job, such as the time of the last run and the success rate.
To view errors and failed jobs, follow these steps:
- Select the name of the most recent calculation job.
- View the error code.
- View line item details if applicable. These details appear below the errors that are shown.
Edit a calculation profile
- In the left navigation pane, select Calculation profiles.
- Select the profile to edit.
- On the action pane, select the pencil icon to edit. The wizard that you used to create the profile opens.
- Edit the desired field.
- 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.
Automatically run a calculation profile after data import
The automatic calculation refresh feature automates the execution of calculation profiles when new data is ingested. To use automatic calculation refresh effectively, follow these steps:
- In the left navigation pane, select Calculation profiles.
- Select the profile to edit.
- On the action pane, select the pencil icon to edit. The wizard that you used to create the profile opens.
- Under Schedule, check the Automatically run this calculation when data is refreshed box.
- Select Next, save your changes, and close the page.
Note
Ensure that your criteria in the calculation profile align with the specific data you want to run through the calculation. These criteria determine when the automatic calculation refresh should trigger calculations.
The automatic calculation refresh runs when new data is ingested for that particular data source. For example, if you configure your calculation profile to calculate emissions for Scope 3 Category 1 Purchased Goods and Services, the automatic calculation refresh only runs when new data related to this specific data source is ingested via the ingestion process. Automatic calculation refresh doesn't run for data that you manually add outside of the ingestion process.
Caution
If you have multiple calculation profiles configured to run on the same data source, each profile independently schedules calculations based on the Auto Refresh setting. You can have multiple calculation profiles set to automatically refresh on the same data source, and each one triggers calculations when new data is ingested.
Manage overlapping data in calculation profiles
When you run multiple calculation profiles with overlapping filters on the same data source, it's important to prevent double-counting emissions. Sustainability Manager avoids double-counting emissions by:
- Data deduplication: If calculation profile A runs before calculation profile B and they overlap in their data coverage, calculation profile B removes overlapping activities emissions before it recalculates them to avoid counting the same emissions twice.
- New emission calculation: After deduplication, calculation profile B generates fresh emissions data based on its specific filters.
To prevent double-counting, follow these guidelines:
- Carefully define filter criteria so you can avoid overlap.
- Coordinate with teams so you can ensure filters don't conflict.
- Regularly review and adjust calculation profiles to maintain accurate sustainability reporting.