How do I calculate the emissions per meal of a mid-day meal kitchen?
Add the kitchen's LPG at 2.98 kg CO2 per kg, steam boiler fuel if used, and electricity at 0.710 kg per kWh, then divide by meals served. Delivery vehicles are a separate line. Food ingredients are Scope 3 and are often larger than the cooking energy.
Cooking energy
- LPG for burners and kettles.
- Boiler fuel where steam cookers are used.
- Electricity for grinders, washers and lighting.
Delivery
Vans that carry meals to schools: own vehicles in Scope 1, hired vehicles in Scope 3.
Per meal
Divide by meals served from the daily count. Report rice, dal and vegetables separately if you add ingredient emissions later.
Worked example: central kitchen (one month, illustrative inputs)
- LPG: 1,800 kg x 2.98 = 5,364 kg CO2
- Electricity: 2,000 kWh x 0.710 = 1,420 kg CO2
- Meals served: 120,000
- Total: 6,784 / 120,000 = 0.0565 kg CO2 per meal
Inputs are illustrative; use your LPG invoices and meal counts.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and diesel, LPG and gas invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a dated, fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record for each site. Intensity per unit uses the activity count you enter, and estimates are labelled as estimates.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.