How do I calculate the carbon footprint of absorbent cotton wool per kg?
Start with the cotton fibre or comber noil per kg and its supplier figure, then add opening, scouring, bleaching, drying and carding energy. Divide the unit's fuel and electricity by kg packed.
Raw material
- Cotton fibre or comber noil by weight.
- Bleaching and scouring chemicals.
- Yield loss during cleaning.
Process
- Kier boiling and bleaching with steam.
- Drying and carding.
- Rolling, cutting, sterilising if required, and packing.
Per kg
Report per kg, then per roll by roll weight. Steam for bleaching and drying is often the largest plant energy use.
Worked example: absorbent cotton unit per kg (one month)
- Electricity: 20,000 kWh x 0.710 = 14,200 kg CO2
- Coal: 30,000 kg x 2.42 = 72,600 kg CO2
- Kg dispatched: 60,000
- Plant total: 86,800 / 60,000 = 1.447 kg CO2 per kg
- Add cotton fibre for the full figure
Inputs are illustrative; use your own bills and production records.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.
Sources: GHG Protocol Product Standard, ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0
Last reviewed 2026-10-20.