# What are the emissions of bleaching cotton fabric per metre?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/cotton-fabric-bleaching-emissions-per-metre

Bleaching uses hydrogen peroxide and other chemicals, which are Scope 3 purchases, and steam to heat the bath, which is boiler fuel in Scope 1. Add washing water heating and machine electricity, then divide by metres or kg processed.

## Per metre

- Hydrogen peroxide and auxiliaries, by kg.
- Steam per batch, converted to boiler fuel.
- Electricity at 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh.

## Combine steps

Combined scouring and bleaching in one bath can save steam; measure before and after.

## 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.

- [Hydrogen peroxide per tonne](https://senseible.earth/answers/hydrogen-peroxide-carbon-footprint-per-tonne)
- [Dye house per metre](https://senseible.earth/answers/dye-house-emissions-per-metre-of-fabric)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2: Energy](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.