# What is the carbon footprint of honey per kg?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/honey-carbon-footprint-per-kg

Count the transport of hives and honey, heating and filtering energy, and the jar or bottle. Divide by kilograms packed. Bee-keeping itself uses little energy, so for honey the glass jar and road transport are often most of the footprint; sugar feeding in lean seasons adds a little.

## At the apiary

- Migratory beekeeping moves hives by truck between crops: count the diesel or hire trips.
- Sugar fed to colonies in lean months.
- Hive boxes and frames, spread over their years of use.

## Processing

- Heating, filtering and moisture reduction: electricity or LPG.
- Filling lines.

## Packaging

A glass jar can weigh about as much as the honey in a small pack. PET or pouches are lighter. State the pack in your figure.

## Worked example: honey plant per kg (one month)

- Electricity: 4,000 kWh x 0.710 = 2,840 kg CO2
- Collection truck diesel: 500 litres x 2.68 = 1,340 kg CO2
- Honey packed (kg): 20,000
- Plant total: 4,180 / 20,000 = 0.209 kg CO2 per kg
- Add jars, caps and labels 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)
- [Glass jar vs pouch for food exports](https://senseible.earth/answers/glass-jar-vs-pouch-food-export-carbon)
- [Food processing industry](https://senseible.earth/industries/food-processing)

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.