What is the carbon footprint of rock wool insulation per kg?
Rock wool is made by melting basalt and slag, often in a coke fired cupola, then spinning fibres and curing a binder. Coke combustion is the main CO2; carbonate fluxes add process CO2. Divide by kg of finished product.
Sources
- Scope 1: coke or gas in the melter, curing oven fuel.
- Process CO2 from any limestone or dolomite in the charge.
- Scope 2: spinning and fan electricity.
- Scope 3: binder, packaging, slag bought in.
Electric melters
An electric melter moves most of the CO2 into Scope 2 and cuts it if the power is renewable.
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.
Sources: IPCC 2006 Guidelines, CEA CO2 Baseline Database, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard
Last reviewed 2026-10-22.