How do I calculate the carbon footprint of cheese per kg?

Most of cheese comes from the milk: multiply the litres of milk per kg of cheese by the milk's farm figure, then add pasteurising, cooking, pressing, ripening and cold store energy. Divide the plant's energy by kg of cheese made.

Milk

• Litres of milk per kg of cheese, often around ten for hard cheese.
• Whey sold or used, which can share the milk footprint.
• Starter cultures, rennet and salt.

Process

• Pasteurising and cheese vats, heated by steam.
• Pressing, brining and ripening rooms.
• Cold storage and packing.

Per kg

Report per kg by cheese type, and say how the milk footprint is split between cheese and whey.

Worked example: cheese unit per kg (one month)

• Electricity: 60,000 kWh x 0.710 = 42,600 kg CO2
• PNG: 8,000 SCM x 2.05 = 16,400 kg CO2
• Kg dispatched: 50,000
• Plant total: 59,000 / 50,000 = 1.180 kg CO2 per kg
• Add milk 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.

• Product carbon footprint calculator
• Paneer footprint
• Butter footprint
• Dairy plant emissions per litre
• Food processing industry

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.