# How does a temple, mosque, church or gurdwara calculate its carbon footprint?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/place-of-worship-carbon-footprint

Start with electricity bills at 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, then generator diesel and LPG for kitchens. Lamps and incense are small. Divide by a fixed period, and report a large community kitchen separately so it can be compared with others.

## Inputs

- Electricity bills for the building and grounds.
- Generator diesel.
- LPG or firewood for the kitchen.
- Vehicles owned by the trust.

## Festivals

Festival days can use far more power and fuel. Keep them as a separate figure so the normal month stays comparable.

## 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. Intensity per unit uses the activity count you enter, and estimates are labelled as estimates.

- [Temple kitchen fuel](https://senseible.earth/answers/temple-community-kitchen-fuel-emissions)
- [DG set vs grid per kWh](https://senseible.earth/answers/dg-set-emissions-per-kwh-vs-grid)
- [Grid electricity factor for India](https://senseible.earth/emission-factors/grid-electricity)

Sources: [CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en), [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 2026-10-22.