How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a poultry processing plant per kg?
Add the plant's electricity, boiler fuel and refrigerant top-ups for a period and divide by kg of dressed product packed. Add the live birds from the farm's own figure, which is usually most of the total, and the packaging.
Plant
- Scalding water heating and boiler fuel.
- Chilling, blast freezing and cold storage electricity.
- Refrigerant top-ups, counted from kg recharged times the gas's GWP.
Inputs
- Live birds per kg of dressed product, with the farm's figure.
- Trays, film and cartons.
- Effluent treatment and rendering of by-products.
Per kg
Report per kg dressed, and say how emissions were shared with by-products such as feathers and offal.
Worked example: processing plant per kg (one month)
- Electricity: 120,000 kWh x 0.710 = 85,200 kg CO2
- PNG: 10,000 SCM x 2.05 = 20,500 kg CO2
- Kg of dressed product packed: 400,000
- Plant total: 105,700 / 400,000 = 0.264 kg CO2 per kg
- Add live birds and packaging 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.
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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.