A simulation lets you estimate the environmental impact of an article before it is produced. You describe the product and its materials, and the PEF Score updates live as you fill in each step. Go to Ecodesign > Impact Simulator and click + New Simulation.
The Data Overview lists two types of articles. Historical articles are existing articles of your brand. Simulation articles are ones you modified or created from scratch. Saving a simulation never changes a Historical article.
Before you start
The PEF Aggregate Score only appears once you have declared a Product Category and at least one raw material. Until then, the results panel shows “No article category has been declared” or “No raw material has been declared”. The full list of required data is below.
The simulation needs all of the following to be declared:
- Product Category
- Manufacturing Country
- Distribution Center (the warehouse origin)
- At least one raw material, with its Material Composition (the fiber or material)
- Fabric Type of each material (for example Knit)
- Material Sourcing Country (extraction)
- Raw Material Processing Country
- Material Processing Country
Steps
- Product-Level Scenario. Enter a Simulation Name. Optionally, assign the simulation to a Project (see Manage Projects below). Select the Product Category; the average weight of the category is shown below the field. Select the Manufacturing Country and, if part of the production travels by air, the % by Plane. Select the Distribution Center. Click Mark as done. It only closes the step; it does not change the results.
- Materials. In the RAW MATERIAL block, choose the Material Composition and its percentage, the Material Sourcing Country and the Raw Material Processing Country. Use + Add composition to blend several fibers in the same material; the badge in the block header shows the running total and should read 100%. Use + Add Material to add another material to the product. Each material also has a Fabric Type (for example Knit) and a Material Processing Country, which is separate from the Raw Material Processing Country.
- Processes. For each material, you can set the Dye, Print and Treatment processes. The default is None.
- Trimmings, Product-Level Finishings and Retail packaging. Complete the remaining steps for the elements that apply to your article.
- Review the results. The Simulation Results panel on the right shows the PEF Aggregate Score, the Impact Breakdown, the Impact Stages and the Detailed Impact Indicators. Change any field and the panel recalculates.
- Save. Click Save to add the simulation to the Data Overview. The download icon next to it exports the results.
Start from an existing article
You can start from a Historical article instead of an empty form. Its data is copied into the simulation, so you only change what you want to test. The original article is never modified. There are two ways to do it:
- From the list. Click the + icon at the end of the row of a Historical article. In the Create Variant window, enter a Variant Name (required). The window shows the Base Parameters that will be copied (Finishing, Material and Weight). Click Create Variant, then edit any parameter in the simulation form. The variant appears under its Historical article, which you can expand in the list, and its type is Simulation.
- From New Simulation. In Search Historic Articles, type the name of the article and click Load to Simulation. BCome asks Add Original Article? to add the original article to the table as a reference. Choose Yes, add it to keep the original next to your simulation, or No, simulation only. The simulation is named after the article, plus a suffix that you choose in the Simulation Name field. The the Product-Level Scenario is filled in and marked as done.
In both cases, the PEF Aggregate Score of the copy equals that of the original until you change a parameter. Click Save to keep it.
To change a saved simulation later, click the edit icon at the end of its row; it opens the form. The + icon is available on simulations too, so you can create a variant of a simulation the same way.
Organize simulations with Projects
Click Manage Projects to group simulations. In Create Project, enter a name, an optional description and a color. In Manage Projects, you can edit or delete a project and see how many simulations it contains. Use the All Projects filter above the list to view one project at a time.
Good to know
- The simulation covers the data you declare. BCome adds warehouse and shipping packaging automatically.
- A simulation is an estimate. Do not communicate its results externally without explaining their limits.