# How do I calculate the carbon footprint of an LED street light?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/led-street-light-carbon-footprint-per-unit

Weigh the die-cast aluminium housing and add the LED board, driver, lens and cable per fitting with supplier figures. Add assembly and burn-in testing electricity, then divide the unit's energy by fittings passed, stated by wattage.

## Bought-in parts

- Die-cast aluminium housing and heat sink.
- LED board and driver.
- Lens or glass cover, gaskets and cable.

## Making

- Die casting and powder coating if done in-house.
- Assembly and sealing.
- Burn-in and photometric testing.

## Per unit

Report per fitting by wattage. The aluminium housing is often the heaviest part, so its source matters.

## Worked example: LED street light unit per unit (one month)

- Electricity: 30,000 kWh x 0.710 = 21,300 kg CO2
- PNG: 2,000 SCM x 2.05 = 4,100 kg CO2
- Units produced: 6,000
- Plant total: 25,400 / 6,000 = 4.233 kg CO2 per unit
- Add housing, LED board and driver 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)
- [LED panel light footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/led-panel-light-carbon-footprint-per-unit)
- [Aluminium die casting footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/aluminium-die-casting-carbon-footprint-per-kg)
- [LED bulb footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/led-bulb-carbon-footprint-per-unit)
- [Aluminium industry](https://senseible.earth/industries/aluminium)

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.