How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a rotavator?
A rotavator is mostly steel: weigh the sheet, plate, blades and gearbox parts per unit and multiply by your suppliers' per-kg figures. Add cutting, welding, machining and painting energy, then divide the plant's energy by units built.
Bought-in parts
- Steel sheet and plate for the frame and cover.
- Boron steel blades and the gearbox castings.
- Bearings, chain and fasteners.
Making
- Laser or plasma cutting and press bending.
- MIG welding and machining.
- Paint shop: pretreatment, powder or liquid paint and oven.
Per unit
Report per rotavator by working width, since a 7 foot model carries much more steel than a 4 foot one.
Worked example: rotavator unit per unit (one month)
- Electricity: 30,000 kWh x 0.710 = 21,300 kg CO2
- LPG: 1,500 kg x 2.98 = 4,470 kg CO2
- Rotavators built: 150
- Plant total: 25,770 / 150 = 171.8 kg CO2 per unit
- Add steel, castings and blades 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.
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.