Carbon reporting for facilities management and cleaning companies

Facilities management and cleaning companies bidding for public contracts above £5 million a year need a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan, and councils, NHS trusts and universities often ask for one on smaller contracts. Most of their emissions are vans, staff travel between sites, commuting and waste, while energy in clients' buildings usually belongs to the client.

Updated 3 October 2026 by the Carbon Recycling team. Figures use the official UK government conversion factors and are checked against the current gov.uk guidance.

Service contracts are spread across many sites, which makes the boundary of your footprint the first thing to get right. The rule is operational control: you report emissions from the things you run and pay for, not from your clients' buildings.

Where FM and cleaning emissions come from

Source	Scope	What to collect
Vans for mobile teams, engineers and supervisors	Scope 1	Fuel cards in litres, or mileage by van class
Your own offices, depots and stores	Scope 1 and 2	Gas and electricity bills in kWh
Air conditioning or refrigeration you maintain and own	Scope 1	Refrigerant top-ups from service records
Staff mileage between client sites in their own cars	Scope 3, category 6	Mileage claims
Staff getting to their regular site	Scope 3, category 7	A commuting survey, scaled to headcount
Waste from your own depots and offices	Scope 3, category 5	Waste contractor reports by material and treatment
Deliveries of consumables you pay for	Scope 3, category 4	Supplier delivery data, or weight and distance

Reductions buyers look for

Electric vans for mobile teams, with charging at depots;
route planning that cuts miles between sites;
a renewable electricity tariff for offices and depots;
concentrated or refillable cleaning products that cut deliveries and packaging;
a cycle-to-work or public transport scheme for site staff.

Getting started

Download our free Carbon Reduction Plan template, or read thePPN 006 guide. Carbon Recycling lets you tag data to each depot or contract site, so you can see where emissions come from and show a buyer the figures for the sites that matter to them.

Frequently asked questions

Is the energy we use in a client's building our emissions?

Usually not. If the client owns and runs the building and pays the energy bills, it is their Scope 1 and 2. It becomes yours only where you have operational control, for example a site you run yourself or a contract where you buy the energy.

Is travel between client sites business travel or commuting?

Travel from home to a regular place of work is commuting (Scope 3, category 7). Travel during the working day between client sites is business travel (category 6), or Scope 1 if it is in a company vehicle.

Do cleaning chemicals and consumables count?

They are purchased goods, Scope 3 category 1, which a PPN 006 plan does not require. From April 2027 larger NHS contracts need all relevant Scope 3, so start keeping purchase records now if you supply the NHS.

We have hundreds of cleaners on part-time contracts. How do we work out commuting?

Survey a sample of staff on how they travel and how far, then scale it up by headcount and days worked. Explain the method in the baseline notes of your plan.

Get your figures and reports done in an afternoon

Add a year of bills and Carbon Recycling produces your footprint, PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan and SECR report, with every figure traced to its government factor. Prices are on the pricing page, from £59 a month.

Start free trial See prices

14 days free. No card needed.