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Find a factor

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To find a factor, type your activity in the search box of factor search, narrow the results with the Filters rail, then click the row that fits to open its factor page. Everything you set is kept in the page address, so you can bookmark a search or send it to a colleague.

Type what you are looking for, the way you would say it: "diesel combustion", "electricity France", "steel". Short phrases work best. Click Search or press Enter.

With a search, the rows are ranked by how well they match, and the readout above the list counts the top-level factors the ranking holds ("top N factors") rather than every row on screen, and the rail shows no counts ("counts unavailable on ranked search"). Clear search empties the box and drops the ranking. Any filters you set stay on, so what comes back is the filtered list; with nothing else set, the address returns to the factors landing page.

What counts as a search#

Without an account you can run 10 searches. A search is one new combination of search text and filters, so what spends an allowance is asking a new question, not typing:

  • Counts: a new search phrase, or a filter you tick, untick or change. Each new combination counts once.
  • Does not count: repeating a combination you already ran, paging, sorting, changing the visible columns, switching the language, and opening a factor page or a library page. Those are never metered.

There is no gauge while you still have most of your allowance. It appears once fewer than half the searches are left and counts them down, "4 of 10 searches left", then turns to a warning colour at two or fewer. Spent searches age out after a day or so, so the allowance comes back on its own. Sign in for unlimited searches removes it, and an account is free.

This is the only limit on browsing. Saving a factor, exporting and downloading a library need the same free account. What is free, and what needs an account puts the rest in one table: the API, the match page, MCP, and the values only a publisher's own licence unlocks.

When the allowance runs out#

The search after your last one keeps the page and replaces the rows. The Filters rail, the pills, the table header and the page address all stay where they are, and in place of the rows a card invites you to create the free account. Nothing is lost: the address still carries the whole selection, so signing in redraws the same view with its rows in it.

The card states a number, and what that number counts depends on what you asked. With an empty search box it reads "N factors match this selection", which is how many factors your filters keep, and you can quote it as a match count. With a search phrase it reads "Searched across N factors", which is the slice the ranking would have run over: the ranking is never run behind the card, so that number is not the number of rows your search would have returned.

Suggested filters#

When your search names something the rail can filter on, such as a country or a unit, a line Filter on appears under the box. For example, a search that names France can offer Region: France. Click the chip to apply that filter and take the words out of the search. A filter is exact; the same words in the search only rank rows higher.

Filter with the rail#

The Filters rail on the left holds one group per axis. Click a group to open it. Each option shows how many factors it would keep; an option that would keep none is greyed out. Long lists have a search box ("Search Region"), a Show more link that names how many are hidden ("Show 12 more"), and headings that group the options: continents under Region, the kind of publisher under Library. Clear all removes every filter.

Group What it filters
Library The publisher's dataset, such as ADEME or DESNZ. See Choosing a library.
Category Category and Sub-category: what the factor measures, such as Fuels or Electricity. See category and the whole category tree, also as categories.xlsx.
Region The country or area the factor describes. Tick Include sub-regions to also match the states, provinces or grid areas under a country. An aggregate such as EU27 is never widened this way, because it already stands for its members. See region.
Unit Unit family and Unit. See unit basis.
Boundary Coverage and Boundary: which life-cycle stages the value counts, and whether the value is a whole answer or a part to add up. See boundary.
EPDs and Provenance Whether the factor is an EPD, whether it names a supplier, and which supplier.
Method Approach (location-based or market-based), Grid mix and GWP method. See calculation approach and grid mix.
Data quality Licence tier and the publisher's Data quality rating. See licence tier.
Year Latest value, or one or more years.

Several options ticked in one group widen the results (France or Belgium). Options in different groups narrow them (France and Electricity). Each filter also shows as a pill above the results; click its cross to remove it.

The phase lens#

The Boundary group opens with a row of four letters marked Covering: U for upstream, P for production, D for downstream, E for end of life. Tick the phases you have to report and the group hides the coverage options that do not include them, so you choose from a short list instead of a long one.

The lens narrows the choices, not the results. It moves no count, it does not appear in the page address, and a coverage option you had already ticked stays in force; the group says how many options the lens is hiding and offers to show them again. See system boundaries.

The year filter#

By default Latest value is ticked: each factor shows its most recent value. Tick a year to see, for each factor, the value that applies in that year instead. A factor applies in a year when its year window covers it. If you tick several years, each factor shows the value for the latest of them that it covers.

Watch out. A factor with no value for your year is not a factor with a zero value. It simply does not cover that year. See reference year.

EPD and supplier switches#

The EPD and named-supplier options are three-way switches: any, only, or none. For a sector average, set "No EPDs" and "No named supplier". An EPD is one manufacturer's declaration for one product, and a supplier-specific value describes that supplier's product, not the market average.

Results by category#

Under the readout, the bar Results by category shows how the results split across categories, with the number of factors and the share of each. Click Add filter on a category to keep only that one. This is the quickest way to leave out, say, the waste rows when you search for a material.

Read the list#

The default columns are Activity, Library, Category, Sub-category, Region, Boundary, Year, Value, Unit and GWP.

  • Year reads "2019–" (from 2019, no end year yet), "–2018" (up to 2018), "2019–2023", or "Any year".
  • Value is in kilograms of CO2e per unit. Read it together with Unit, just to its right.
  • A badge "supplier" or "EPD" next to an activity marks a supplier-specific value or an EPD.
  • A dagger (†) and a lock mark values waiting for the publisher's approval to be published. A locked value is unknown, not zero.

Some rows are made of parts, for example burning a fuel and producing it. Click Unfold this factor to see the parts and their values under the row. A row shown "for context" or "outside your filters" is the parent of a part that matches your filters. It is there so you can see what the part belongs to. Use the whole or its parts, never both: see parents and parts.

Sort#

Click the Category, Year or Value header to sort on it; click again to reverse the order. The other columns do not sort.

Choose columns#

Click Columns to show or hide columns, such as Approach, Grid mix, Price basis, Currency year, Data quality or Supplier. The columns you tick are the columns an export carries, plus the few it always adds: see the columns you did not ask for. Row density switches between Cozy and Dense.

Open the factor#

Click a row to open its factor page, which shows the value, its year windows, its parts, its licence and a citation. Read a factor page walks through it.

Work the list from the keyboard#

The results list has a cursor you can drive without the mouse. Only the / key is advertised on screen, so here is the whole set.

Key What it does
/ Put the caret in the search box, from anywhere on the page
Down and Up Move the cursor through the rows in front of you
Enter Open the factor page of the cursored row
Right and Left Next and previous page of results
Esc Drop the cursor
S Save the cursored factor, which needs an account: see Save factors
E Open the export dialog: see Export to a spreadsheet

A result row is not a tab stop, so this is not merely a quicker path: the cursor is how you open a factor from the list without a mouse. Tab reaches the search box, the rail and the pills, and it also reaches the controls the rows carry: the bookmark mark in each row's gutter, and the Unfold this factor twisty on a row that has parts. On a full page that is a great many stops between the pills and the pager, which is the other reason the cursor keys are worth learning.

The keys are ignored while you are typing in a field, and while a dialog or a drop-down list is open, so s typed in the search box is just an s. The cursor belongs to the rows in front of you, and a new set of rows drops it rather than moving it: after a filter change or a page turn no row is cursored, so press Down once to take the first row of the new list before pressing Enter.

A whole pass without the mouse: type your activity, Enter to search, Down to the row that fits, Enter to read it, then back in your browser to return to the list.

Everything you set is in the page address, so a view is a link you can paste into a ticket or a methodology note. The names are short, and they are not the labels on screen.

Control on screen Parameter Example
The search box q q=butane
Library lib lib=desnz
Category, Sub-category cat, subcat cat=Fuels
Region region region=GB
Include sub-regions subreg subreg=1
Unit family, Unit unit_family, unit unit=kwh
Coverage, Boundary bpreset, bcode bpreset=energy_full_chain
EPD, Named supplier, Supplier is_epd, has_supplier, supplier has_supplier=true
Derived factors is_derived is_derived=false
Approach, Grid mix, GWP method approach, grid_mix, gwp_method gwp_method=ar6
Licence, Data quality license_tier, data_quality_normalized license_tier=open
Year year year=2016
The Saved pill saved saved=1, your own saved factors

Category and Sub-category take the label you see, not a code, so a space is written as %20. Repeat a name to select several values in the same group, which widens the results (region=FR&region=BE), and combine different names to narrow them.

One filter has no control left in the rail: boundary, the boundary family, which the Boundary group stopped offering as a level when Coverage took its place. An older link that still carries it keeps filtering on it, and the group shows the family it names as a ticked chip so a filter in force is never out of sight. You can take that chip off; you cannot pick a new family.

The rest of the address is what the page looks like rather than what it holds: sort with one of relevance, category, value or year, plus dir=desc to reverse it; page for the page of results, 25 rows to a page; cols for the visible columns, comma separated, which are also the exported ones; dense=1 for the dense row height; and open for the rail groups you unfolded, comma separated. The rail starts folded, so an untouched rail prints no open at all.

Defaults are left out, so the canonical link is the short one: a view you have not changed prints no parameters at all.

Watch out. Factor search keeps a parameter name it does not know instead of rejecting it, so /factors/?library=desnz is not an error, it is the whole of factor search with no filter on. If a hand-written link shows more than you expected, check the pills: a filter that took effect is always a pill.

If nothing matches#

The page says "No factors match this combination." and lists the filters under Try removing:, the one that frees the most factors first. Remove one, or click "search all libraries instead". If factor search has nothing for your activity, "Can't find it? Send us the file." leads to the matching page.

Useful starting points#

Next#