# How big is a tonne of CO2, in terms staff can picture?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/what-does-a-tonne-of-co2-look-like

At room temperature and normal pressure a tonne of CO2 fills about 556 cubic metres, a cube a little over 8 metres on each side. For a factory, it is about 373 litres of diesel burned, or about 1,408 kWh of grid electricity at India's 0.710 kg per kWh.

## Ways to picture it

- Volume: about 556 cubic metres of gas at 25°C.
- Diesel: 1,000 ÷ 2.68 = about 373 litres.
- Grid electricity: 1,000 ÷ 0.710 = about 1,408 kWh.

## Use your own numbers

Staff remember a figure tied to their work, such as how many days of DG running make a tonne, better than a general comparison.

## How the volume is worked out

- CO2 density at 25°C and 1 atm: about 1.80 kg per cubic metre
- 1,000 ÷ 1.80 = about 556 cubic metres
- Cube root of 556: about 8.2 metres a side

## 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, and labels estimates as estimates.

- [Tree equivalents](https://senseible.earth/answers/tree-equivalents-in-carbon-communication)
- [kg vs tonnes mistakes](https://senseible.earth/answers/emissions-form-unit-mistakes-kg-tonnes-co2e)

Sources: [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 2026-10-23.