What happened to PAS 2060
PAS 2060 was BSI's specification for demonstrating carbon neutrality, first published in 2010. For more than a decade it was the standard UK businesses quoted when they called themselves carbon neutral. It has now gone:
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 30 November 2023 | ISO 14068-1:2023, the first international standard for carbon neutrality, is published. BSI says PAS 2060 will be withdrawn in two years. |
| 1 March 2024 | BSI's verification scheme for ISO 14068-1 becomes available. |
| 1 January 2025 | BSI no longer delivers its PAS 2060 verification scheme. |
| 31 December 2025 | BSI's deadline for all PAS 2060 verifications to be completed and opinions issued. |
| September 2026 | ISO 14068:2026 is published. It cancels and replaces ISO 14068-1:2023 as a minor revision. |
If you have a PAS 2060 verification for a past year, BSI says it stays valid for that historical period. It can't support a claim about this year or next.
How ISO 14068 is different
The biggest change is the order of things. ISO 14068 sets a hierarchy: reduce your own emissions and those in your value chain first, and use offsetting only to counterbalance the footprint that remains after that. In practice that means:
- Reductions come first. A business that buys credits to cover its whole footprint, without a plan to cut it, is not doing what the standard expects.
- The claim has to be backed by a plan. You commit to carbon neutrality, measure your footprint, set out how you'll reduce it, and only then counterbalance what's left.
- It covers organisations and products, including services, buildings and events, but not towns, regions or countries.
ISO standards are sold, not free, so we haven't reproduced the clauses here. If you're working towards a claim, buy the standard from BSI or ISO and read it alongside your verifier's scheme rules.
Should a small business make a carbon neutral claim at all?
Usually, no. Since April 2025 the Competition and Markets Authority has been able to decide for itself that consumer law has been broken and fine a business up to 10% of its global turnover. Its Green Claims Code says claims must be truthful, clear and substantiated, and that a business relying on offsetting should say so. "Carbon neutral" is one of the hardest claims to substantiate, because it depends on the quality of every credit you buy.
What customers and public sector buyers actually ask a small supplier for is simpler:
- your measured Scope 1, 2 and relevant Scope 3 emissions, with the period and method;
- a reduction target and a net zero commitment;
- real actions with dates, such as "moved two vans to electric in March 2026";
- any offsets reported separately, never netted off your emissions.
A PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan covers all four, and it's what government and NHS buyers ask for. Our guide to carbon offsetting for business explains how to describe credits honestly if you do buy them.
If you still have "PAS 2060" on your website
- Check which period your verification covered. If it's in the past, say so: "verified carbon neutral to PAS 2060 for the year to March 2024".
- Remove any wording that suggests the claim applies today, unless you've since met ISO 14068.
- Replace it with what you've measured and cut, with figures and dates.
- If you want to keep making a neutrality claim, plan the move to ISO 14068:2026 with a verifier before your next reporting year.
How Carbon Recycling helps
Carbon Recycling reports your gross emissions with the government conversion factors and tracks reductions against your baseline, which is the measured footprint and reduction plan any carbon neutrality claim has to start from. It doesn't certify or verify claims, and we don't sell offsets.