# How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a flatweave cotton durrie or rug?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/cotton-durrie-carbon-footprint-per-square-metre

Weigh the yarn in a square metre, including weaving waste, and multiply by your yarn supplier's per-kg figure. Add dyeing, loom electricity if powered, washing, drying and finishing, then divide the unit's energy by square metres woven.

## Yarn and dyeing

- Cotton or recycled yarn by weight per square metre.
- Dyeing at your unit or a job dyer, with its steam fuel.
- Weaving waste and selvedge trimming.

## Weaving and finishing

- Handlooms use no electricity; powerlooms and shuttleless looms do.
- Washing, drying and fringe or binding work.
- Rolling, wrapping and cartons.

## Per square metre

Report per square metre, since rugs are sold in many sizes. Give the weight per square metre.

## Worked example: durrie unit per square metre (one month)

- Electricity: 12,000 kWh x 0.710 = 8,520 kg CO2
- PNG: 1,500 SCM x 2.05 = 3,075 kg CO2
- Square metres finished: 20,000
- Plant total: 11,595 / 20,000 = 0.580 kg CO2 per square metre
- Add yarn and outsourced dyeing 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)
- [Hand-knotted carpet footprint per m2](https://senseible.earth/answers/hand-knotted-carpet-carbon-footprint-per-square-metre)
- [Recycled cotton yarn footprint per kg](https://senseible.earth/answers/recycled-cotton-yarn-carbon-footprint-per-kg)
- [Textile industry](https://senseible.earth/industries/textile)

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.