How do I calculate the carbon footprint of an office chair?
Add the base, gas lift, mechanism, seat shell, foam, fabric and castors per chair with supplier figures. Add moulding, upholstery and assembly energy, then divide the plant's energy by chairs made.
Material
- Nylon or aluminium base and castors.
- Steel mechanism and gas lift.
- Plastic shell, foam and fabric or mesh.
Process
- Moulding of plastic parts if done in-house.
- Foam cutting and upholstery.
- Assembly and packing.
Per chair
Report per chair by model and weight. An aluminium base carries more footprint than a nylon one.
Worked example: office chair unit per chair (one month)
- Electricity: 20,000 kWh x 0.710 = 14,200 kg CO2
- Chairs produced: 10,000
- Plant total: 14,200 / 10,000 = 1.420 kg CO2 per chair
- Add base, mechanism, foam and fabric 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
- Plastic chair footprint
- Foam mattress footprint
- Wooden furniture 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.