Carbon reporting for IT and digital services firms

IT and digital services firms bidding for UK government contracts above £5 million a year need a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan, and many public sector frameworks ask every supplier for one. For most IT firms the footprint is small: office energy, homeworking, commuting and business travel, with cloud hosting reported separately if a buyer asks.

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.

IT suppliers are asked for Carbon Reduction Plans on government frameworks, NHS digital contracts and by large corporate customers. The good news is that the footprint is usually simple to measure, and a plan can be ready within a day once you have the data.

Where IT firms' emissions come from

Source	Scope	What to collect
Office electricity, including any server room you run	Scope 2	Bills in kWh, or a share of the building's use from your landlord
Office gas heating	Scope 1	Bills in kWh, or your landlord's apportionment
Office air conditioning	Scope 1	Refrigerant top-ups, if you are responsible for the units
Flights, rail, hotels and taxis	Scope 3, category 6	Travel booking reports and expenses
Commuting and homeworking	Scope 3, category 7	A staff survey: days in the office, days at home, how people travel
Office waste and old equipment	Scope 3, category 5	Waste and WEEE recycling records
Hardware shipped to customers	Scope 3, category 4 if you pay for delivery; category 9 if the customer pays	Courier data or invoices

Reductions that work for IT firms

Moving to a renewable electricity tariff, or an office that has one;
a travel policy that prefers rail to domestic flights;
refurbishing and recycling laptops instead of disposing of them;
choosing hosting providers that publish their emissions and use renewable power.

Getting started

Download our free Carbon Reduction Plan template, or read thePPN 006 guide. Carbon Recycling includes the government homeworking factor, so remote and hybrid teams are covered without a spreadsheet.

Frequently asked questions

Do cloud hosting and data centres count in a Carbon Reduction Plan?

Hosting you buy from a provider is purchased services, Scope 3 category 1, which a PPN 006 plan does not require. Servers you run yourself, in your own building, are your Scope 2. Many buyers still ask about hosting, so ask your provider for its carbon figures.

We're fully remote. What do we report?

Homeworking, which the PPN 006 technical standard lets you include in employee commuting (Scope 3, category 7), plus business travel and any office or co-working space you control. The government conversion factors include a homeworking factor per hour worked from home.

Is a small IT firm really asked for this?

Yes, often. Central government asks on contracts above £5 million a year, and many public sector frameworks and large customers ask every supplier, whatever their size.

Our footprint is tiny. Is a plan still worth it?

A small, well-documented footprint scores well. Evaluators look for a credible method, a net zero commitment and real reduction projects, not a big number.

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.

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