# We buy diesel in jerry cans for forklifts and small engines. How do we record it for carbon?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/diesel-in-jerry-cans-carbon-records

Count it like any other diesel: litres bought times 2.68 kg CO2 per litre, in Scope 1. Keep the pump bill for each fill, or a cash memo with litres, date and amount. A simple can issue log shows which machine used it if a buyer asks.

## What to keep

- Pump bill or memo with litres for each fill.
- A log: date, can, litres, machine.
- Cans still full at year end, if you count consumption rather than purchases.

## Factor

Diesel at 2.68 kg CO2 per litre, from IPCC 2006 defaults. It is Scope 1 because you burn it in your own equipment.

## Worked example (illustrative)

- 15 fills of a 20 litre can = 300 litres
- 300 × 2.68 = 804 kg CO2, Scope 1

## 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, and labels estimates as estimates.

- [Cash diesel without GST invoice](https://senseible.earth/answers/cash-diesel-purchases-without-gst-invoice)
- [Diesel tank issue register](https://senseible.earth/answers/own-diesel-tank-issue-register-emissions)
- [Fuel bought vs burned](https://senseible.earth/answers/fuel-purchased-vs-fuel-consumed)

Sources: [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html), [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-23.