# How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a piece of bamboo furniture?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/bamboo-furniture-carbon-footprint-per-piece

Raw bamboo is a fast growing grass. Much of the footprint usually comes from treatment, drying, adhesives, finishes and any engineered board. Add those per piece and divide the workshop's energy by pieces made.

## Materials

- Bamboo poles, splits or engineered bamboo board.
- Preservatives, adhesives and lacquer.
- Screws, cane and cushions.

## Process

- Treatment and drying, sometimes in a kiln.
- Cutting, bending with heat and joining.
- Finishing and packing.

## Per piece

Report per piece by type and weight. Engineered bamboo board adds glue and pressing energy that raw poles do not.

## Worked example: bamboo furniture unit per piece (one month)

- Electricity: 2,000 kWh x 0.710 = 1,420 kg CO2
- LPG: 200 kg x 2.98 = 596 kg CO2
- Pieces made: 600
- Plant total: 2,016 / 600 = 3.360 kg CO2 per piece
- Add bamboo, adhesives and finishes 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](https://senseible.earth/calculators/product-carbon-footprint)
- [Wooden furniture footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/wooden-furniture-carbon-footprint-per-piece)
- [Coir product footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/coir-product-carbon-footprint-per-kg)
- [Construction industry](https://senseible.earth/industries/construction)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Product Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/standards), [ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org)](https://www.iso.org), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-10-20.