How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a hospital bed?

Weigh the steel tubes and sheet, castors, motors or cranks and mattress per bed and multiply by supplier figures. Add cutting, welding, powder coating and assembly energy, then divide by beds built.

Material

• Steel tubes and sheet.
• Castors, cranks or actuators.
• Mattress and side rails.

Process

• Cutting, bending and welding.
• Powder coating.
• Assembly and testing.

Per bed

Report per bed by type, since a motorised ICU bed carries more parts than a manual ward bed.

Worked example: hospital bed unit per bed (one month)

• Electricity: 15,000 kWh x 0.710 = 10,650 kg CO2
• PNG: 3,000 SCM x 2.05 = 6,150 kg CO2
• Beds produced: 1,000
• Plant total: 16,800 / 1,000 = 16.8 kg CO2 per bed
• Add steel, actuators and mattress 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
• Steel almirah footprint
• Hospital emissions
• Foam mattress footprint
• Steel 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 2026-10-20.