# How do I calculate the carbon footprint of paneer per kg?

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

Multiply the milk used per kg of paneer, from your yield records, by a milk factor; milk is most of the total. Add boiler fuel for heating, electricity for pressing, chilling and storage, the coagulant and packaging. Divide by kilograms of paneer packed.

## Milk, the main input

- Paneer takes several kilograms of milk per kilogram, depending on fat and solids; use your own yield.
- Ask your milk supplier or dairy union for a per-litre farm figure, or use a database value and name it.
- Whey is a co-product. If you sell it, allocate between paneer and whey by mass of solids or by value, and state the method.

## Plant energy

- Boiler or direct-fired heating to bring milk to coagulation temperature.
- Electricity for presses, chillers and cold rooms.
- Vacuum packing machines.

## Per kg

Divide by paneer packed. If you also make curd or ghee in the same plant, allocate energy by product using metered lines or batch times.

## Worked example: dairy paneer line per kg (one month)

- Boiler PNG: 6,000 SCM x 2.05 = 12,300 kg CO2
- Electricity: 25,000 kWh x 0.710 = 17,750 kg CO2
- Paneer packed (kg): 30,000
- Plant total: 30,050 / 30,000 = 1.00 kg CO2 per kg
- Add milk (your yield x milk factor), citric acid and packaging

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)
- [Dairy plant emissions per litre of milk](https://senseible.earth/answers/dairy-plant-emissions-per-litre-of-milk)
- [Allocate emissions between co-products](https://senseible.earth/answers/how-to-allocate-emissions-between-co-products)
- [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.