# How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a call centre per seat?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/call-centre-emissions-per-seat

Add the centre's electricity at 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh and generator diesel at 2.68 kg per litre, then divide by production seats. Night shifts and 24-hour cooling raise use per seat, and employee cabs are a separate Scope 1 or Scope 3 line.

## What to count

- Electricity for desks, IT, air conditioning and lights.
- Diesel for backup generators.
- Refrigerant top-ups for the AC plant.

## Employee transport

Cabs the company runs are Scope 1; cabs from a vendor with drivers are Scope 3. Night-shift transport is often a large share of a BPO footprint.

## Per seat

Divide by production seats, and by seat-hours for sites running different shift patterns.

## Worked example: 400-seat centre (one month, illustrative inputs)

- Electricity: 45,000 kWh x 0.710 = 31,950 kg CO2
- Diesel: 600 litres x 2.68 = 1,608 kg CO2
- Seats: 400
- Total: 33,558 / 400 = 83.9 kg CO2 per seat a month

Inputs are illustrative; use your bills and seat count.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and diesel, LPG and gas invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a dated, fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record for each site. Intensity per unit uses the activity count you enter, and estimates are labelled as estimates.

- [Night-shift cab emissions](https://senseible.earth/answers/night-shift-cab-emissions-scope-1-or-scope-3)
- [IT company carbon per employee](https://senseible.earth/answers/it-company-carbon-footprint-per-employee)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html)

Last reviewed 2026-10-21.