How do I calculate the carbon footprint of paper envelopes?

Envelopes are mostly paper: take the paper mill's figure per tonne for the grade used, add adhesive, window film and ink, then add cutting, folding, gumming and printing energy per kg of envelopes made.

Material

• Kraft or maplitho paper.
• Gum or self-seal adhesive.
• Window film and printing ink if used.

Process

• Die cutting the blanks.
• Folding, gumming and drying.
• Printing and packing.

Per kg

Report per kg, or per thousand envelopes by size. Recycled paper usually lowers the figure.

Worked example: plant energy per kg (one month)

• Electricity: 8,000 kWh x 0.710 = 5,680 kg CO2
• Kg dispatched: 40,000
• Plant total: 5,680 / 40,000 = 0.142 kg CO2 per kg
• Add paper, adhesive and ink 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
• Paper bag footprint
• Offset printing footprint
• Paper mill footprint
• Paper 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 2026-10-21.