See carbon impact of using recycled material

If you are manufacturing a part, you may consider using an alternative material, which is made from wholly or partially recycled material. If so, you can calculate the carbon footprint impact of using the alternative material. For this, you need the supplier to give you the material carbon factor (kg of carbon per kg) for the alternative material.

This example shows how to edit the properties of the material used in a part, and then compare the carbon impact of the alternative material with the carbon impact of the currently used material.

See also: See how different manufacturing options affect carbon impact for a part.

Requirements

To enter and analyze sustainability data, you must have an aPriori Sustainability License and aP Pro 2023 R1 or later.

Limitations

• aP Pro does not yet support Sustainability analysis for all process groups. For a list of currently supported process groups, see Processes supported in Sustainability.
• Carbon from product use, tooling, and end-of-life is not currently considered.

Prerequisites

This example requires:

• A part that has been costed in a version of aP Pro that includes a Sustainability License.
• The material carbon factor (kg of carbon per kg) for the alternative material. In this example, the new value is 2.41 kg of carbon per kg of material.

Procedure

1. Open the scenario for the part.

2. Open the Part Details tab.

   

3. In the Part Details tab, expand the Table View drop-down menu, and then click Select Table View > Sustainability Summary.

   

4. Find the row for the process group that you are interested in. In this example the process group is Sheet Metal.

5. Expand the node for the process group.

   

   Continue expanding nodes until the process that you are interested in editing appears. In this example, the process of interest is the Turret Press process.

   

6. In the Carbon Info column of the table, expand the Total Carbon (kg CO2e) node.

   

   The Carbon Info sub-columns are now visible, including Primary Material Carbon Factor.

   

   Info:

   A pencil icon, , indicates that you can edit a value. For more information, see Part Details Overrides.

7. Find the cell for the data you want to edit. In this example, the cell of interest is at the intersection of Primary Material Carbon Factor and Turret Press.

   

8. Double-click the cell of interest, edit the value, and then press Enter.

   For this example, the value is decreased from 2.46 to 2.41.

   You have the option to enter a comment in the Comment dialog for the cell, for example with the name of the alternative material.

   The cell displays an arrow and the new value.

   The arrow indicates whether the value increased or decreased relative to the prior value.

   The hover text for the cell displays the value change and, as applicable, the associated comment.

   

   Tip:

   If you prefer not to see the arrows, see Clear Cost Arrows in Part Details tab.

9. To recost the part, in the aP Pro menu bar, click Cost.

   

   After the scenario has been recosted, in the Carbon Info data, applicable dependent output values, such as those in the Annual Carbon (kg CO2e) and the Total Carbon (kg CO2e) columns, update to reflect the effect of the updated value for Primary Material Carbon Factor.

10. Examine the impact of the change.

    In this example, the Current values for Annual Carbon and Total Carbon have decreased. The values in the Current row are lower than the values in the Previous row.

    This indicates that the use of the alternative material results in lower Total Carbon.

    

11. To indicate that the scenario has been changed, but that the changes have not been saved, an asterisk is displayed in the scenario tab.

    

12. To save the scenario, in the aP Pro menu bar, click the Save button.

    

    Once the recosted scenario has been saved, the values for the Current, Previous, and Last Saved update.