By contrast the life cycle data in BEES are fixed. The way the BEES data are generated is that the TEAM developers, Ecobalance, work with manufacturers to establish reasonable assumptions about the manufacture of their products, then use TEAM to generate BEES data based on these assumptions. To preserve manufacturer trade secrets, the BEES data are necessarily aggregated and are documented in less detail then are the commercial databases. BEES is a free, user-friendly adaptation of the commercial databases for those in the building community who are not necessarily familiar with life cycle assessment. BEES also analyzes the data to arrive at single environmental performance scores, and adds an economic performance dimension not found in the commercial databases.
Designers can compare one product to another through a series of graphs, charts and summary tables.
It is sometimes an unsettling experience, as light is shed on assumptions made about a product. We have been surprised on more than one occasion by a product's environmental impact. Currently BEES analyzes 65 product categories. These categories are general and have established an industry average. For example, there is information regarding nylon carpet, wool carpet and recycled polyester carpet, however one cannot research a proprietary specification.