How do I calculate the carbon footprint of viscose fabric?

Start with the viscose yarn per metre of fabric and the fibre and spinning suppliers' figures. Add weaving or knitting and wet processing energy, especially steam for dyeing and finishing, then divide by metres produced.

Material

• Viscose staple fibre or filament yarn.
• Dyes and chemicals.
• Sizing agents for weaving.

Process

• Weaving or knitting.
• Scouring, dyeing or printing, usually steam heated.
• Drying, finishing and folding.

Per metre

Report per metre by width and weight per square metre. Fibre and wet processing usually make up most of the figure.

Worked example: plant energy per metre (one month)

• Electricity: 60,000 kWh x 0.710 = 42,600 kg CO2
• Coal: 30,000 kg x 2.42 = 72,600 kg CO2
• Metres produced: 200,000
• Plant total: 115,200 / 200,000 = 0.576 kg CO2 per metre
• Add viscose yarn and dyes 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
• Printed fabric footprint
• Yarn dyeing footprint
• Cotton vs polyester fabric
• Textile 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.