Environmental Properties
Here is a list of environmental properties available in Discovery.
Note: Click Environment on the Material HUD
options panel to expand the environmental properties.
| Climate change (CO2-eq) | This value is the CO2-equivalent of 1 kg of the material from a combination of its ores and some recycled content. Climate change refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by shifts in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. It is calculated based on the global warming potential (GWP), developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The GWP model allows comparisons of the global warming impacts of different gases, reported as carbon dioxide equivalents (denoted as CO2-eq). |
| Embodied energy | This value is the embodied energy of the production of 1 kg of the material from a combination of its ores or feedstocks and some recycled content. It represents both the direct and indirect energy use throughout the life cycle of a good or a service, and it is based on the cumulative energy demand method developed by ecoinvent. It includes renewable and non-renewable energy resources (biomass, fossil, geothermal, nuclear, primary forest, solar, water, and wind), and the value reported is the sum of all of these resources. |
| Potential to recycle | This value indicates whether, when the material reaches its end of life, it can be recycled, regardless of the recyclate's quality. A material is designated as recyclable if it can be reprocessed, by generally available and economically viable means. It includes processing of both new and old scrap: new scrap is material that is generated during the manufacturing process, and old or post-consumer scrap is that which has been used by a consumer. |