How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a steel trunk?

Weigh the steel sheet per trunk, including offcuts, and multiply by the steel supplier's per-kg figure. Add pressing, welding, painting and oven energy, then divide the unit's energy by trunks made.

Materials

• Cold rolled steel sheet by weight.
• Hinges, latches and handles.
• Paint or powder.

Process

• Shearing, bending and spot welding.
• Pretreatment and painting.
• Paint oven and packing.

Per piece

Report per trunk by size and sheet gauge.

Worked example: steel trunk unit per piece (one month)

• Electricity: 8,000 kWh x 0.710 = 5,680 kg CO2
• LPG: 600 kg x 2.98 = 1,788 kg CO2
• Trunks made: 3,000
• Plant total: 7,468 / 3,000 = 2.489 kg CO2 per piece
• Add steel sheet and paint 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
• Steel almirah footprint
• Sheet metal stamping footprint
• Steel 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 2026-10-20.