What is the carbon footprint of a cricket bat?
Add the willow cleft, cane handle, rubber grip, glue, stickers and packing, then seasoning, pressing and finishing energy. Divide by bats made. Most of a bat is wood, whose stored carbon is reported separately, so its fossil footprint is small compared with metal or plastic goods.
Materials
- English or Kashmir willow clefts: count clefts bought per bat made, since some are rejected.
- Cane and rubber handle, grip, twine and glue.
- Stickers, toe guard, cover and carton.
- Imported English willow adds sea freight.
Workshop energy
- Seasoning or drying: sun or kiln.
- Pressing, shaping and sanding machines.
- Polish and oiling.
Biogenic carbon
The willow holds carbon taken from the air. Report it separately rather than netting it off.
Worked example: bat workshop per bat (one month)
- Electricity: 4,000 kWh x 0.710 = 2,840 kg CO2
- Bats made: 3,000
- Plant total: 2,840 / 3,000 = 0.947 kg CO2 per bat
- Add clefts, handles, grips and packaging 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.