General Ecochain Information

Using Helix or Mobius, it certainly is possible to compare similar, or identical products that are produced in different manufacturing sites. The extent to which one is able to compare identical products produced in different factories, will depend on the quantity, as well as the quality, of primary data available from both manufacturing sites. Ultimately, the quality of your LCA and comparison will depend on the availability of primary data you are making use of.

Ecochain has many customers in the apparel & textile industries. Additionally, we have a lot of in-house consulting and modelling experience in this field - for both Mobius and Helix. Ecochain can help you by implementing your project, build a personalised database, or help select appropriate datasets for your materials.

The main LCI database that we currently offer in our software is Ecoinvent - one of the most extensive and recognised databases worldwide. For prospects interested in Mobius, we recommend taking a free 14 day trial (no credit card required) to get an impression of dataset availability. In case you can’t find appropriate datasets, consider scheduling a free 30 minute call directly through Mobius, to receive personal assistance.

One of the most common methodologies for quantifying the environmental impact of a product is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - a scientific method for measuring the environmental footprint of materials and products over their entire lifetime (e.g. different stages like manufacturing, transport, use, disposal).

Ecochain's software solutions enable full life cycle modeling according to ISO 14040 and 14044 standards. ISO 14040 describes the ”principles and framework” for an LCA, while ISO 14044 specifies “requirements and guidelines”.

The actual data is collected via an important step called impact assessment (LCIA). This step delivers environmental impact values (e.g. x kg CO2-eq). There are many different methods for LCIAs based on location, goals, and scope. Ecochain supports the following LCIA methods, amongst others:

You can read more about this in the following article.

The validity of your LCA will depend on the exact framework, and calculation method used. LCA frameworks exist on regional level (e.g. the Environmental Footprint Method in the EU), as well as on national country level (e.g. the NMD Bepalingsmethode in the Netherlands). It is important to consider these factors prior to modelling complete LCAs as the chosen standard and calculation method can influence how to model your LCA. 

Ecochain offers various LCI databases. The following LCI databases are included in Helix and Mobius:

You can read more about Lice Cycle Inventory databases here.

LCI databases, such as Ecoinvent, offer over 18,000 datasets to choose from. These datasets vary from raw material extraction (very high in a supply chain), to ready-made, complete components, or even products (at the end of the supply chain).

Beginners to LCA tend to have a wrong perception, that in order to create their LCA, they need granular information, and data on everything occurring in their supply chain. While it depends on the goal of the LCA, it helps to narrow down the scope in the initial phase, and to broaden the scope later.

Ecoinvent datasets often offer enough information for semi-finished components, or inputs, that your company purchases to create your products. Therefore, most users are able to get started by making use of Ecoinvent, without having complete information on all the upstream processes involved in their supply chain.

Our Environmental Specialist team can always help with deep-diving into your supply chain, and help with creating a personalised database for your purchased materials.

Most certainly! Your suppliers can enter their data in two ways:

In short, no - Ecochain currently does not have features to automatically import data from your ERP system. At the moment this is an exercise where the structure of the data in your ERP system needs to be converted to the prerequisite structure of the import file used for Mobius or Helix. We are exploring options to simplify this process. We do offer Professional Services, which can help with data collection and importing the data to our software solutions.

Certainly! There are methods to take the use of ‘waste’, or production leftovers into account in your LCA - in both Mobius or Helix. The exact approach will depend on the specifics of your case. For instance, whether the wastes are generated internally, or whether you are receiving/purchasing production leftovers from elsewhere.

At the moment it is not possible to upload a flowchart to your Mobius, or Helix environment. If you are using an online tool to create your flowchart, you can add the URL, or link, to the flowchart in the description field of an object in the Mobius Detail panel.

Creating a flowchart is an important starting point for identifying the scope, setting the system boundaries, and conducting your LCA. A complete flowchart can serve as an inspiration for how to structure your LCA, as well as a checklist to ensure you have included all relevant inputs for your model.

Currently the main method for adding data from other (design) software is making use of excel import files.

For Mobius users, the only way to import data is by making use of .csv formatted files. Take a look at this article to explore approaches when wanting to import data in bulk in Mobius.

For Helix users, currently it is possible to import data page-by-page in the software with regular excel files.

In both cases, the extent to which you're able to import data from other (design) software will depend on whether the data can be structured in line with our import files. 

When it comes to creating verified EPDs, currently Helix is a better fit than Mobius. There are two main reasons why Helix is a better solution for this use case.

First, Helix specialises in portfolio footprinting - it is simply faster at creating Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) when it comes to assessing the environmental impact of your entire portfolio, or manufacturing site(s). Second, Helix has better functionalities for creating reports that are needed to get to an EPD. While neither Helix or Mobius is currently able to create full, complete & ready reports - you will always have to write parts of the report manually - Helix can create templates, as well as fill in part of the data that has been modelled in Helix. 

Mobius is a product footprinting software. Currently, Mobius does not have reporting capabilities. Therefore, generating reports, and EPDs with Mobius will be a more time-intensive, and manual effort. Naturally, you can export the (quantitative) results from Mobius to Excel, which serves as the starting point to creating a (EPD) report. Having said that, we have many Mobius clients that have created verified reports and EPDs with the use of Mobius.

Have a read through this blog post to understand what both of these terms are. Additionally, we highly recommend having a read through this fantastic case study, describing how Orbia Building & Infrastructure (Wavin) created over 13.000 environmental footprints with the use of Helix. The case study clearly describes the difference between an EPD, and an environmental profile.