What is the carbon footprint of a packaged drinking water plant per litre?

At the plant, electricity for RO, ozonation and filling is the main own source, at 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh. The bottles usually weigh more in the total: PET preforms and caps are Scope 3. Divide the month's total by litres filled.

Split

• Scope 2: RO, pumps, ozone, blow moulding, filling.
• Scope 1: genset diesel, delivery vans.
• Scope 3: preforms, caps, labels, cartons.

Jars vs bottles

Returnable 20 litre jars spread their plastic over many refills, so they carry far less packaging per litre.

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.

• Office water jars
• PET bottle flakes

Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, CEA CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.