# How does a newspaper printing plant work out carbon per copy?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/newspaper-printing-plant-carbon-per-copy

Add newsprint and ink as purchased goods to the plant's own electricity and fuel, then divide by copies printed. Newsprint usually dominates, so the paper mill's figure per tonne matters more than anything on the press floor.

## The parts

- Newsprint: tonnes used, including waste, times the mill's factor per tonne. Scope 3 category 1.
- Ink and plates: kilograms and plates used times supplier factors.
- Press hall electricity and any diesel generator use: Scope 2 and Scope 1.
- Copies printed, from the circulation run sheets.

## Waste counts

Start up waste and unsold returns use paper too. Count newsprint consumed, not paper in copies sold.

## Getting the paper factor

Ask the mill. Recycled fibre newsprint and virgin newsprint differ widely, so a generic number can be far off.

## 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.

- [Printing unit paper purchases](https://senseible.earth/answers/printing-unit-paper-purchases-scope-3-share)
- [Book printing per copy](https://senseible.earth/answers/book-printing-carbon-footprint-per-copy)
- [Printing ink per kg](https://senseible.earth/answers/printing-ink-carbon-footprint-per-kg)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-10-21.