How much do polishing and squaring add to a vitrified tile's footprint?
Sub-meter the polishing, squaring and calibration line, multiply its kWh by 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh and divide by square metres polished. Add it to the kiln and press figure for polished tiles only, since unpolished tiles skip this stage.
What the line uses
- Calibrating and polishing heads.
- Squaring and chamfering machines.
- Water pumping and slurry handling.
Per product
Report the polishing energy only on polished SKUs. Averaging it over all tiles understates polished tiles and overstates matt ones.
Waste from polishing
Polishing removes material as slurry. Its disposal or reuse is waste in Scope 3, or recycled into the body, which you can note.
Worked example: one month of polishing (illustrative inputs)
- Electricity: 420,000 kWh x 0.710 = 298,200 kg CO2
- Square metres polished: 300,000
- Total: 298,200 / 300,000 = 0.994 kg CO2 per square metre
kWh and area are illustrative; use the line sub-meter and production log.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the energy invoices behind the making stage into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, and keeps material invoices on the Scope 3 trail. Material factors come from your supplier or a named database and are labelled with their source, so the product figure can be traced line by line.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.