The Scenario feature in Ecochain Mobius is synonymous with making a copy of your product's LCA model. It allows you to:
Streamline your workflow by making multiple product LCAs, all based on one blueprint or template
Evaluate sustainable design decisions through your Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) results, enabling improvement and ecodesign possibilities.
This article focuses on explaining how to use the Scenario feature effectively and covers the following questions:
What is the purpose of the Scenario feature?
How does the Scenario feature work?
What are the steps to creating a product scenario?
Next steps.
Don't feel like reading an article? Watch a video tutorial on this subject instead!
What is the purpose of the Scenario feature?
Once you've completed your first product LCA or Product Footprint in Mobius, you likely want to do one of two things, both achievable through the Scenario feature:
Test how you can improve the environmental impact of your product's model. The Scenario feature allows you to test different product scenarios and make evidence-based sustainability decisions.
Copy your first product to use it as a 'template' and quickly make LCAs of similar other products. This is more efficient than modeling new product LCAs from scratch.
Pro tip - Copying multiple products: Looking to make multiple copies of the product's LCA in one go? Consider using the CSV import feature to bulk import multiple products at once!
How does the Scenario feature work?
By generating a copy of your product, the Scenario feature enables you to change your duplicated model without affecting the original. Any changes to subitems result in an automatic copy, with the adjusted objects conveniently stored in your Object library.
Caution - Editing your copied product: Only edit your copied product in the Scenario mode, where the two products (original and copy) are side-by-side (Figure 3). More on this can be found under Step 4 below!
What are the steps to creating a product scenario?
Let's learn how to create product scenarios:
Access the Scenario feature: Find the Tools menu in the top right of your Product inventory and select Create scenario (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Accessing the Scenario feature in Mobius.
Create a new scenario: Click the + Create from the dropdown list to make a copy of your product LCA (Figure 2). You will now have two products on your dashboard - the original product on the left and the copied product (the scenario) on the right (Figure 3). This copied product is automatically added to your Products overview page. You can change the name of this copied product.
Figure 2: Creating a scenario in Mobius.
Figure 3: The copied product (right) and original product (left) in Mobius.
Edit the new scenario: Adjust the objects within your copied product to explore various design possibilities (Figure 4). Every time you change an object, Mobius will also copy this object and duplicate it. This enables you to safely change your new objects without changing your original product.
Pro tip - Naming objects/ products: It's important to clearly name new objects to avoid confusion. For example, rename new objects (aka objects you've copied in Scenario mode) to replace the word 'copy' in their name. If you don't do this, you may eventually have too many objects named 'copy'.
Figure 4: An edited scenario (right) that uses less fabric. The original version remains the same. Note how the environmental impact (bottom bar) changes.
Compare scenarios: Compare the scenario to the original product. Based on the implemented changes, you can see which product has a lower environmental footprint at the bottom of the dashboard.
Caution - Editing your copied product: Changes must always be made in the Scenario view (i.e., when two products are side by side) if you don’t want the implemented changes to influence the original product, but only the copied product.
If you start changing the copied product in the regular Inventory Builder view, this will lead to unintended changes to the original product. See the section below on how to return to a previously made Scenario.
How to return to a previously made Scenario?
Since modeling LCAs is an iterative process, where changes are made over time as you discover new alternatives or new data becomes available, you may want to return to a scenario you've made previously.
Luckily, Mobius remembers the original product used to make a copy, or multiple copies. To remember which product was the original, we recommend adding an 'identifier' in the original product's name (e.g., 'Template' or 'Blueprint').
To revisit a previously generated scenario, follow these steps:
Identify the original product, and open it
Select the Scenario feature from the Tools button
Instead of generating a new scenario, click on the copy you'd like to revisit (figure 5).
Mobius will bring you to the scenario mode, and you can continue editing the copy without making changes to the original product.
Figure 5: Returning to a previously generated scenario
Video Tutorial
Watch Emma explain these concepts in our tutorial:
Next steps
Creating product scenarios in Mobius provides a straightforward approach to evaluating sustainable design decisions. The Scenario feature allows you to assess the environmental impact of potential changes before reaching the production phase. Additionally, the Scenario feature enables you to quickly start a new LCA by reusing the structure of a previous model you have created.
Ready to explore Mobius's capabilities further? Our other help center articles provide comprehensive guidance on maximizing your ecodesign potential.