# Does a CPCB red category factory have high carbon emissions?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/cpcb-red-category-vs-high-carbon-emitter

Not necessarily. CPCB colour categories rank industries by pollution potential, such as air and water pollutants and hazardous waste, not by greenhouse gases. A red category unit may have modest CO2, and a green category unit with a big boiler or many kilns can emit more. Measure CO2 from your fuel and power bills.

## What the colours mean

- Red, orange, green and white come from a pollution index set by CPCB.
- They decide consent conditions and inspection frequency.
- They say nothing about your Scope 1 and 2 total.

## What buyers and lenders ask instead

They ask for tonnes of CO2e from fuel and electricity, with the documents behind them, and sometimes for Scope 3.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads bills, fuel invoices and production records into dated, fingerprinted records, so the figure you send a buyer can be traced to its documents.

- [Carbon audit vs energy audit vs ESG audit](https://senseible.earth/answers/carbon-audit-vs-energy-audit-vs-esg-audit)
- [Is my factory a BEE designated consumer?](https://senseible.earth/answers/is-my-factory-bee-designated-consumer)

Sources: [Central Pollution Control Board](https://cpcb.nic.in), [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-23.