Who needs a Carbon Reduction Plan?
Under Procurement Policy Note 006 (PPN 006), central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies must ask bidders for a Carbon Reduction Plan when a contract is worth more than £5 million a year including VAT, where it is relevant and proportionate. PPN 006 applies to procurements under the Procurement Act 2023 advertised on or after 24 February 2025, and replaced PPN 06/21.
In practice far more businesses are asked for one, because other buyers have copied the format:
| Buyer | What they ask for |
|---|---|
| Central government, contracts above £5m a year | A PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan, as a condition of participation |
| NHS, contracts of £5m a year or more | A Carbon Reduction Plan; from 1 April 2027 it must cover global operations and all relevant Scope 3 |
| NHS, contracts below £5m a year | A Net Zero Commitment, or a Carbon Reduction Plan |
| NHS Supply Chain frameworks | Evergreen Level 1, which includes a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan, from 6 April 2026 |
| Councils, housing associations, universities, large companies | Often a PPN 006-style plan, even on small contracts |
If you sell to the NHS, our NHS supplier checker tells you which of these applies to you.
What goes in a Carbon Reduction Plan?
The government publishes a template. Following its order makes your plan easy for an evaluator to check:
- Commitment to achieving net zero. A statement that you are committed to net zero by 2050 at the latest for your UK operations.
- Baseline emissions footprint. Your emissions in a baseline year: the year you first measured, or a typical year if that one was unusual. Explain why you chose it.
- Current emissions. Your most recent full year, in the same categories as the baseline, in tonnes of CO2e.
- Emissions reduction targets. Where you expect emissions to be in future years on the way to net zero.
- Carbon reduction projects. What you have already done since the baseline, and what you plan to do next.
- Declaration and sign-off. Confirmation that the plan follows PPN 006 and the technical standard, approved by your board (or equivalent) with the date, and signed by a director.
Which emissions must it cover?
All of Scope 1 and Scope 2, plus five of the fifteen Scope 3 categories in the GHG Protocol. The figures must be in tonnes of CO2e and use the UK government's conversion factors.
| Scope | What it means | Typical sources for a smaller business |
|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 | Fuel you burn and gases you release | Gas boilers, company vans and cars, heating oil, air conditioning leaks |
| Scope 2 | Electricity and heat you buy | Electricity bills for every site |
| Scope 3, category 4 | Upstream transport and distribution | Couriers and hauliers delivering to you |
| Scope 3, category 5 | Waste from your operations | General waste, recycling, food waste |
| Scope 3, category 6 | Business travel | Trains, flights, hotels, mileage in employees' own cars |
| Scope 3, category 7 | Employee commuting | Staff travel to work, and homeworking if you include it |
| Scope 3, category 9 | Downstream transport and distribution | Delivering your goods to customers when they pay for it |
A worked example
A 25-person facilities company with one office, six diesel vans and a contract cleaning team might find something like this for its first year. Use our kWh to CO2e calculator to try your own energy and fuel figures.
| Source | Data | Scope | tCO2e |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office gas | 38,000 kWh | 1 | 6.93 |
| Van diesel | 21,000 litres | 1 | 54.25 |
| Office electricity | 24,000 kWh | 2 | 3.14 |
| Business travel and commuting | Mileage claims and a staff survey | 3 | 18.40 |
| Waste and couriers | Waste invoices and courier spend | 3 | 2.10 |
| Total | 84.82 |
Gas, diesel and electricity use the DESNZ 2026 factors (0.18231 kg per kWh of gas, 2.58354 kg per litre of diesel, 0.13096 kg per kWh of electricity). The Scope 3 lines are illustrative.
The vans are two-thirds of the footprint, so the plan's reduction projects should start there: route planning, driver training and a timetable for electric vans. That is the kind of specific, believable plan evaluators score well.
How to publish it
- Put it on your UK website and place a link to it in a prominent place on your homepage, as the technical standard asks.
- Use a stable web address, so the link you give in a bid still works next year.
- Show the date of board approval and the signing director's name.
- Update it within six months of each financial year end, and keep the old versions available.
Common reasons plans get marked down
- Missing one of the five Scope 3 categories, or leaving out commuting because it is hard to measure. Estimate it from a short staff survey.
- No baseline year, or a baseline that changes every year without explanation.
- Using old conversion factors, or a mix of years.
- Counting offsets or a green tariff as a reduction without saying so.
- Not signed, not dated, or not published where the buyer can see it.
Choosing software for a Carbon Reduction Plan
There are three kinds of tool, and the right one depends on how often you bid:
- A one-off plan tool (about £199 to £299 a plan) suits one tender, once. You pay again when the plan needs updating.
- Carbon reporting software keeps your data year to year, so next year's plan is an update rather than a rewrite, and the same data gives you an SECR report or answers to customer questionnaires.
- A consultant writes it for you, from about £895 for a small business.
Whichever you choose, check it:
- follows the government template and covers all five Scope 3 categories PPN 006 asks for, saying why if one doesn't apply;
- uses the conversion factors for the right year and shows which factor produced each figure;
- records board approval and the signing director before the plan is published;
- can widen to global operations and all relevant Scope 3, if you sell to the NHS on larger contracts from April 2027.
Our comparison of UK carbon reporting software links each provider's own pricing page, with the date we checked it, and says when another option is better value than ours.
How Carbon Recycling helps
You add your bills and records, and we calculate every line with the government factor for the right year, showing its ID so an evaluator can check it. The Carbon Reduction Plan follows the government template, stays marked as a draft until your board approval and signing director are recorded, and updates itself when you add next year's data. Before you publish, it lists anything PPN 006 asks for that is still missing. It is included on every plan, from £59 a month + VAT, with every price on our pricing page.
Writing your first plan by hand? Our free Carbon Reduction Plan template follows the government format, and UK carbon reporting requirements shows where PPN 006 sits alongside SECR, the NHS rules and UK SRS.