Freight footprint
This freight carbon calculator measures the CO2e of moving goods using the DESNZ 2026 freighting-goods factors, which are expressed per tonne-kilometre: the mass carried multiplied by the distance moved. Sea freight is typically the lowest-carbon mode per tonne-km and air freight the highest, often by two orders of magnitude.
TL;DR — Enter the shipment mass and distance per leg; we convert to tonne-kilometres and apply the official DESNZ 2026 factor for the mode and vehicle class.
Step 1 of 2
Running total: 0.00 tCO2e
Road
Pick the vehicle, then the shipment weight and distance.
Road freight
Shipment weight × distance carried
How is it calculated?
- Every mode uses a DESNZ 2026 factor per tonne.km — mass (converted to tonnes) × distance (km).
- Road factors are split by vehicle class (van up to 3.5t, HGV classes); rail, sea and air freight each have their own factors.
Every calculation runs server-side against a versioned official factor set and records the factor behind each line — see our methodology.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a tonne-kilometre?
- The unit freight emissions are measured in: one tonne of goods moved one kilometre. A 2-tonne shipment moved 500 km is 1,000 tonne-km, which is then multiplied by the mode's emission factor.