How do I calculate the carbon footprint of corn flakes per kg?
Add the maize grits, sugar and malt per kg with supplier figures. Then add cooking, flaking and toasting energy, a large plant energy use, plus packing, and divide the plant's energy by kg of flakes packed.
Ingredients
- Maize grits by weight.
- Sugar, malt, salt and vitamins.
- Liner bags and cartons.
Process
- Steam cooking of grits.
- Drying, flaking rolls and toasting ovens.
- Coating and packing.
Per kg
Report per kg by product. Cartons are a real share for cereals, so list them separately.
Worked example: corn flakes unit per kg (one month)
- Electricity: 40,000 kWh x 0.710 = 28,400 kg CO2
- PNG: 15,000 SCM x 2.05 = 30,750 kg CO2
- Flakes packed (kg): 200,000
- Plant total: 59,150 / 200,000 = 0.296 kg CO2 per kg
- Add grits, sugar and cartons 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.