Hi Sam,
If a material is not available in the material database, this is usually due to the material not reaching ‘industry average’ rates of use. In lieu of a product EPD which would be the best option, you may use another material as a proxy to account for the missing impacts if you know what the GWP of the material is.
With our latest June 2024 release, we have created a new proxy material under the ‘Generic’ category.
This new material’s environmental impact is based on the CO2 refrigerant gas. The main difference being that 1kg of the proxy material equals 1kgCO2e in GWP. All other environmental indicator impacts are the same proportion impact as the CO2 refrigerant gas.
You’ll also need to do some research to check the end-of-life impact the gas has. Once you know what the GWP impact is of this gas at the EOL, you’ll need to find which EOL gas loss method that we currently have that is most similar.
I hope that helps!
