How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a pair of jeans?
Multiply the denim fabric per pair, including cutting waste, by your mill's per-metre or per-kg factor. Add trims, sewing electricity, washing and finishing fuel and chemicals, and packing. Divide by pairs passed. Fabric is usually most of the total, then washing.
Fabric
- Count fabric issued per pair from your marker plan, including the cutting waste.
- Ask the denim mill for a figure per metre or per kg; cotton growing, spinning, dyeing and weaving are all in it.
- Stretch denim includes elastane, which is higher per kg than cotton.
Make and wash
- Sewing and pressing electricity.
- Washing: boiler steam for hot washes, enzymes, stones, bleach and dryers. Laser and ozone finishing cut water and chemicals.
- Rivets, buttons, zips, labels and the poly bag.
Per pair
Divide by pairs that pass inspection. Give heavy and light washes separate figures if your wash recipes differ.
Worked example: jeans unit per pair (one month)
- Electricity: 60,000 kWh x 0.710 = 42,600 kg CO2
- Wash boiler PNG: 15,000 SCM x 2.05 = 30,750 kg CO2
- Pairs passed: 100,000
- Plant total: 73,350 / 100,000 = 0.734 kg CO2 per pair
- Add denim fabric, trims and chemicals 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.