How to calculate your small business carbon footprint in India
Your carbon footprint is simpler than it sounds: it's mostly your electricity plus the fuel you burn, each multiplied by an emission factor. Here's the exact method — with India-correct numbers.
The two numbers that matter most: Scope 1 and Scope 2
- Scope 1 = fuel you burn directly — diesel in your generator and vehicles, LPG, petrol, CNG.
- Scope 2 = the electricity you buy from the grid.
(There's a "Scope 3" for your whole supply chain, but as a small supplier you're rarely expected to calculate it yet — a dated "planned" is an acceptable answer.)
Step 1: Gather a year of bills
You need annual totals: electricity in kWh (on your bill), and fuel in litres (diesel/petrol), kg or cylinders (LPG), kg/m³ (CNG/PNG). Don't know your kWh? Divide your annual electricity spend by your tariff (commonly ₹7–9 per unit).
Step 2: Apply the emission factors
An emission factor converts an activity into kg of CO₂. The critical one is electricity, and this is where India differs:
India's grid emission factor is 0.7117 kg CO₂/kWh (CEA CO₂ Baseline Database V21.0, FY2024-25). The UK/US grids are around 0.2 — so a Western free calculator understates an Indian footprint by roughly 70%.
Standard fuel factors (IPCC/DEFRA):
- Diesel: 2.68 kg CO₂/litre
- Petrol: 2.31 kg CO₂/litre
- LPG: 2.98 kg CO₂/kg (a commercial cylinder = 19 kg)
- CNG / natural gas: ~2.69 kg CO₂/kg
Step 3: Do the maths
The whole calculation is just multiply-and-add:
Scope 2 = electricity (kWh) × 0.7117
Scope 1 = (diesel L × 2.68) + (petrol L × 2.31) + (LPG kg × 2.98) + (CNG kg × 2.69)
Total (kg) = Scope 1 + Scope 2 → divide by 1,000 for tonnes (tCO₂e)
Worked example: 24,000 kWh + 1,200 L diesel + 24 LPG cylinders (456 kg) →
Scope 2 = 24,000 × 0.7117 = 17,081 kg (17.1 t). Scope 1 = (1,200×2.68) + (456×2.98) = 3,216 + 1,359 = 4,575 kg (4.6 t). Total ≈ 21.7 tCO₂e/year.
Skip the spreadsheet — do it in 5 minutes
The free Supplier ESG Self-Check applies all these India factors automatically and gives you a customer-ready summary.
Open the free calculator →A note on honesty
Use your real bills, not round guesses — a figure you can back with a bill survives your customer's assurance check. If you're missing a month, estimate transparently and say so.