How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a college hostel per student?
Add hostel electricity at 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, mess LPG at 2.98 kg per kg, and generator diesel at 2.68 kg per litre, then divide by resident students. Sub-meter the hostel if it shares a campus supply, or label the split an estimate.
Main sources
- Electricity for rooms, fans, ACs, water heaters and pumps.
- LPG for the mess kitchen.
- Diesel for backup generators.
Shared campus supply
If the hostel shares a meter with the campus, split by sub-meter readings, or by connected load and hours as a labelled estimate.
Per student
Divide by resident students per month. Food bought for the mess is Scope 3 and can be added later from purchase records.
Worked example: 500-student hostel (one month, illustrative inputs)
- Electricity: 40,000 kWh x 0.710 = 28,400 kg CO2
- LPG: 1,500 kg x 2.98 = 4,470 kg CO2
- Diesel: 300 litres x 2.68 = 804 kg CO2
- Resident students: 500
- Total: 33,674 / 500 = 67.3 kg CO2 per student a month
Inputs are illustrative; use your own bills and occupancy.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and diesel, LPG and gas invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a dated, fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record for each site. Intensity per unit uses the activity count you enter, and estimates are labelled as estimates.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults)
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.