How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a retail store per square foot?
Divide the store's electricity at 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, plus generator diesel and refrigerant top-ups, by the carpet area in square feet. Report each store per month, and keep refrigerated stores apart, since chillers and freezers use far more energy per square foot.
What to count
- Electricity from the store meter.
- Generator diesel during outages.
- Refrigerant top-ups for AC and display chillers.
Mall stores
In a mall, your own metered electricity is Scope 2. Common-area charges are Scope 3, Category 8, unless you control that space.
Per square foot
Use carpet area from the lease, and compare stores of the same format, since grocery and apparel stores differ widely.
Worked example: one apparel store (one month, illustrative inputs)
- Electricity: 9,000 kWh x 0.710 = 6,390 kg CO2
- Diesel: 100 litres x 2.68 = 268 kg CO2
- Store area (sq ft): 3,000
- Total: 6,658 / 3,000 = 2.219 kg CO2 per sq ft a month
Inputs are illustrative; use each store's bill and lease area.
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, CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults)
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.