How do I calculate the carbon footprint of handmade paper?
Add the cotton rag, waste paper or plant fibre used per kg of finished sheets, the pulping and drying energy, and any dyes and sizing. Divide the unit's energy by kg of good sheets made.
Material
- Cotton rags, waste paper or plant fibre.
- Sizing agents and dyes.
- Water.
Process
- Beating fibre into pulp.
- Hand forming sheets and pressing.
- Air or heated drying and calendering.
Per kg
Report per kg of finished sheets. Air drying uses far less energy than heated drying, so say which the unit uses.
Worked example: plant energy per kg (one month)
- Electricity: 4,000 kWh x 0.710 = 2,840 kg CO2
- LPG: 200 kg x 2.98 = 596 kg CO2
- Kg dispatched: 8,000
- Plant total: 3,436 / 8,000 = 0.429 kg CO2 per kg
- Add fibre, dyes and sizing 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 2026-10-21.