How do I calculate emissions from construction and demolition waste?

For construction and demolition waste you send away, Scope 3, Category 5 is mainly transport, at 2.68 kg CO2 per litre of diesel, plus treatment. Inert concrete and brick do not decay, so they add no landfill methane under IPCC defaults; mixed wood and paper do.

What to count

• Diesel for trucks taking debris away, from the transporter.
• Treatment at a C&D processing plant, if it reports energy per tonne.
• Mixed waste with wood, paper or plastic sent to landfill.

Inert waste

Concrete, brick and stone hold no degradable organic carbon, so landfilling them releases no methane by IPCC default. Wood and paper mixed in should be estimated separately.

Recycling

Debris processed into recycled aggregate is a good outcome to report in tonnes. Any avoided emissions from it are shown separately, never subtracted.

Worked example: one demolition job (illustrative inputs)

• Debris removed: 200 tonnes in 25 truck trips
• Diesel from the transporter's log: 300 litres x 2.68 = 804 kg CO2
• Disposal of concrete and brick at a designated site: no landfill methane under IPCC defaults
• Category 5 for the project: about 804 kg CO2, plus any wood or paper sent to landfill

Tonnes and litres are illustrative; use the transporter's and processor's records.

What Senseible does here

Senseible keeps waste manifests, transport invoices and treatment bills as evidence on the Scope 3 trail and reads electricity bills for on-site equipment into Scope 2. Avoided emissions are never subtracted from the inventory.

• Waste emissions in Scope 3, Category 5
• Office fit-out embodied carbon
• Can I deduct recycling avoided emissions?

Sources: 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 5 Waste, Chapters 2 and 5, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, Central Pollution Control Board

Last reviewed 2026-10-21.