How do I calculate the carbon footprint of brake pads or brake shoes?
Weigh the steel backing plates and each friction material ingredient per set and multiply by supplier figures. Add mixing, hot pressing, curing ovens, grinding, painting and packing energy, then divide plant energy by sets passed.
Materials
- Steel backing plates, often the largest single weight.
- Friction mix: fibres, resins, fillers, metal powders and abrasives.
- Shims, clips and boxes.
Process
- Mixing and preforming.
- Hot pressing and post-curing ovens, on electricity or gas.
- Grinding, scorching, painting and printing.
Per set
Report per set by part number, since a car set and a truck set differ many times over in weight.
Worked example: brake pad plant per set (one month)
- Electricity: 70,000 kWh x 0.710 = 49,700 kg CO2
- PNG: 4,000 SCM x 2.05 = 8,200 kg CO2
- Sets passed: 100,000
- Plant total: 57,900 / 100,000 = 0.579 kg CO2 per set
- Add backing plates and friction materials 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.