How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a bottle of hair oil?
Add the base oils, such as coconut or mineral oil, and perfume per bottle with supplier figures. Then add the bottle, cap and label, plus blending, filling and packing electricity divided by bottles filled. Report by pack size.
Materials
- Coconut, mineral or other base oils.
- Herbal extracts and perfume.
- HDPE or PET bottle, cap and label.
Process
- Blending tanks, sometimes heated.
- Filling and capping lines.
- Shrink wrap and cartons.
Per bottle
Report per bottle by millilitres, and per litre so packs of different sizes compare fairly.
Worked example: hair oil unit per bottle (one month)
- Electricity: 8,000 kWh x 0.710 = 5,680 kg CO2
- Bottles filled: 400,000
- Plant total: 5,680 / 400,000 = 0.0142 kg CO2 per bottle
- Add oils, bottles and caps 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.