What is the carbon footprint of a slaughterhouse per tonne of meat?

The plant's own share is electricity for chilling and freezing, boiler fuel for hot water, refrigerant leaks and methane from effluent ponds. The animals raised for it carry a far larger upstream footprint, which belongs in Scope 3. Divide plant emissions by tonnes of dressed meat.

Plant sources

• Scope 2: chillers, blast freezers, lighting.
• Scope 1: boiler fuel, refrigerant leaks, effluent methane from open ponds.
• Scope 3: animals bought, packaging, transport.

Effluent

Open anaerobic lagoons release methane. Covered digesters that capture and burn the gas cut it sharply.

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.

• Poultry processing per kg
• Gelatin plant emissions

Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, IPCC 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.