How do I calculate the carbon footprint of an LED street light?

Weigh the die-cast aluminium housing and add the LED board, driver, lens and cable per fitting with supplier figures. Add assembly and burn-in testing electricity, then divide the unit's energy by fittings passed, stated by wattage.

Bought-in parts

• Die-cast aluminium housing and heat sink.
• LED board and driver.
• Lens or glass cover, gaskets and cable.

Making

• Die casting and powder coating if done in-house.
• Assembly and sealing.
• Burn-in and photometric testing.

Per unit

Report per fitting by wattage. The aluminium housing is often the heaviest part, so its source matters.

Worked example: LED street light unit per unit (one month)

• Electricity: 30,000 kWh x 0.710 = 21,300 kg CO2
• PNG: 2,000 SCM x 2.05 = 4,100 kg CO2
• Units produced: 6,000
• Plant total: 25,400 / 6,000 = 4.233 kg CO2 per unit
• Add housing, LED board and driver 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 panel light footprint
• Aluminium die casting footprint
• LED bulb footprint
• Aluminium 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.