How do I calculate the carbon footprint of soy milk?
Add the soybeans used per litre with the supplier's figure, then the sugar and other ingredients, the grinding, cooking and filling energy and the packaging. Divide the plant's energy by litres filled.
Inputs
- Soybeans.
- Sugar, flavours and fortification if added.
- Bottles, cartons or pouches.
Process
- Soaking, grinding and cooking.
- Separating okara and pasteurising or sterilising.
- Filling and chilling.
Per litre
Report per litre and include the pack. Okara sold as feed can be treated as a co-product rather than waste; say how you allocate.
Worked example: plant energy per litre (one month)
- Electricity: 20,000 kWh x 0.710 = 14,200 kg CO2
- PNG: 2,000 SCM x 2.05 = 4,100 kg CO2
- Litres filled: 40,000
- Plant total: 18,300 / 40,000 = 0.458 kg CO2 per litre
- Add soybeans, sugar and the pack 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.
- Product carbon footprint calculator
- Soybean meal footprint
- Fruit juice footprint
- Glass bottle footprint
- Food processing industry
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 2026-10-21.