How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a woollen shawl?

Start with the wool or wool blend yarn per shawl and the yarn supplier's figure, then add weaving, dyeing, washing and finishing energy. Divide the unit's energy by shawls finished and state fibre, size and weight.

Yarn

• Wool, acrylic or blend yarn by weight.
• Yarn dyeing if bought undyed.
• Embroidery thread if used.

Processing

• Power loom electricity, or handloom with no machine energy.
• Washing, milling and drying.
• Finishing, pressing and packing.

Per shawl

Report per shawl with fibre and weight. A pure wool shawl and an acrylic one carry very different yarn figures.

Worked example: woollen shawl unit per shawl (one month)

• Electricity: 8,000 kWh x 0.710 = 5,680 kg CO2
• PNG: 1,000 SCM x 2.05 = 2,050 kg CO2
• Shawls produced: 5,000
• Plant total: 7,730 / 5,000 = 1.546 kg CO2 per shawl
• Add 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
• Handloom fabric footprint
• Polyester blanket footprint
• Acrylic sweater footprint
• 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 2026-10-20.