How do I calculate the carbon footprint of an emergency light?

Weigh the plastic body, LED board, battery, charger circuit and adapter per unit and multiply by supplier figures. Add moulding and assembly energy, then divide the plant's energy by units made.

Material

• Plastic housing and diffuser.
• LED board and charging circuit.
• Lithium-ion or lead-acid battery.

Process

• Injection moulding.
• Board assembly.
• Final assembly, charging test and packing.

Per unit

Report per unit by battery type and capacity. The battery is often the largest part of the figure.

Worked example: plant energy per unit (one month)

• Electricity: 20,000 kWh x 0.710 = 14,200 kg CO2
• Units made: 50,000
• Plant total: 14,200 / 50,000 = 0.284 kg CO2 per unit
• Add battery, LED board and plastics 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.

• Product carbon footprint calculator
• LED bulb footprint
• Lead-acid battery footprint
• PCB assembly footprint
• Automobile industry

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 2026-10-21.