Filter settings can help you find exactly the material you are looking for, however they can also restrict you from finding materials if you combine too many filter settings. For this reason it is recommend to use the filter settings with care. In this article we will explain how you can utilize the filter settings in the most efficient way. You do not have to select all filters, you can also use 1, or a combination of a few.

The filter settings can be found:

Inside your materials query in any tool which supports filter settings.

During the 'mapping phase' of the import process.

Different filters can be used to filter out data from the database and display only those materials which meet the set filter criteria.

Used to filter materials based on their material class and subclass (e.g. glass wool insulation). Searching for materials will only display results for that material class or subclass.

Used to filter materials based on their country of production. Searching for materials will only display results for materials produced in that country. If there are no EPDs produced in a country, or no EPDs for a specific product in that country, it will not display any results.

Used to filter materials based on publication source, usually an EPD program operator or other type of material database. Searching for materials will only display materials published on the selected database. Manufacturers are free to choose with which program operator they publish data, which means that the majority of databases cover materials from more than one country of production.

The type filter allows you to distinguish between 4 types of data.

Representative for a range of products or regions, may not always be covered by an EPD. Use this type when you have not chosen the products yet, or when the manufacturer has no data.

Often Type III EPD data which can cover single or multiple products representing manufacturers their products. Use this type when selecting specific local products or for picking the closest alternative product.

Also Type III EPD data, however from one specific factory. Use this type when selecting local product or picking the closest alternative product.

Data you have added yourself using the Private Constructions or Private Data features.

To filter out data based on their used upstream database, which is only suitable if you are intending to do direct product comparison for multiple impact indicators. Using this filter is not relevant for carbon only (GWP) assessments, and less relevant when doing whole building LCA studies.

Different LCA methodologies such as Ecoinvent and Gabi use similar methods to calculate emissions for Global Warming Potential, however have slight differences in the other indicators (OP, ADP etc.). For this reason if you are doing direct product comparison and are comparing two similar products which have been created with different upstream databases, theoretically not all of their emissions for all indicators are comparable.

Used to filter data based on their environmental performance related to the Green Material Benchmark feature. This filter benchmarks all products against each other, and categorises their emissions according to

If you select e.g. 'Very low', it only displays the top 20% best performing materials, you can combine this filter with the material filter for quick results of the top 20% best performing materials of a specific material type.

Used to filter materials based on their available functional units. Recommend to find MEP/Building tech options in m2.

Used to filter materials based on specific material properties. Please note, we can only add this filter to materials if the EPD or manufacturer specifically states their product has said properties. Recommend for finding e.g. freeze resistant asphalt or fire resistant gypsum board.

The majority of European countries have plenty of EPD data, however not every country has EPD data for every product and the vast majority of EPDs are from Western Europe. Most countries in Asia or Africa have no EPDs at all as creating EPDs just is not a priority in those regions at the moment.

In North America there is a large quantity of EPDs, however these are mostly structural materials, which means the variety of different types of products available is much more limited than in Europe. As LEED is the most popular LCA assessment in North America there is less of a push for manufacturers to create EPDs for non-structural materials as for LEED the required scope is only the structure and envelope of a building.

We recommend to click on the 'clear' option next to the filters to ensure no filters are blocking you from finding data. Then start a search again, however as we stated before, if you combine too many filters, this can also restrict you from finding the resources you want. You do not have to use all filters at the same time.