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

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

Cement usually drives most of the footprint: multiply the cement per kg of adhesive by its supplier figure. Add sand, polymers and bags, then drying, blending and packing energy divided by kg packed.

## Materials

- Cement by weight.
- Graded silica sand.
- Polymer powder and cellulose ether.

## Process

- Sand drying, if done in-house.
- Dry blending.
- Valve bag packing.

## Per kg

Report per kg by class. Sand drying with a burner adds fuel that bought dry sand does not.

## Worked example: tile adhesive unit per kg (one month)

- Electricity: 15,000 kWh x 0.710 = 10,650 kg CO2
- Diesel: 3,000 litres x 2.68 = 8,040 kg CO2
- Adhesive packed (kg): 3,000,000
- Plant total: 18,690 / 3,000,000 = 0.00623 kg CO2 per kg
- Add cement, sand and polymer 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)
- [Ceramic tile footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/ceramic-tile-carbon-footprint-per-square-metre)
- [Wall putty footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/wall-putty-carbon-footprint-per-kg)
- [Cement industry](https://senseible.earth/industries/cement)

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.