Guides and tools

For suppliers

Do you need a Carbon Reduction Plan?

If you sell to central government or the NHS, sooner or later a tender will ask for one. Here is what it is, who asks, what goes in it and how to write a first version without a consultant.

By Richard Harvie · Updated November 2026 · 6 minute read

What a Carbon Reduction Plan is

A Carbon Reduction Plan sets out your organisation's carbon footprint and how you will get to net zero. Public sector buyers use it to check that a supplier is taking its emissions seriously. For central government contracts it is a condition of taking part in the tender: buyers check that the plan meets the standard, and a plan that does not can rule you out, however good the rest of the bid.

It is not a long report. Most plans fit on two or three pages, and the Government publishes a template that sets out the headings.

Who asks for one

• Central government. Under Procurement Policy Note 006 (PPN 006), government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies ask for a plan on contracts worth more than £5 million a year, including VAT, unless it would not be relevant or proportionate to the contract.
• The NHS in England. Since April 2024, NHS England's rules have covered all new procurements. A full plan is needed for contracts worth £5 million a year or more (including VAT) and for new frameworks; below that, a simpler Net Zero Commitment has been enough.
• The NHS from 1 April 2027. For procurements that start on or after that date, contracts of £5 million a year or more and all new frameworks need an enhanced plan covering global Scope 1 and 2 emissions and all relevant Scope 3. Below £5 million, suppliers need a full plan in the existing format, because the Net Zero Commitment ends for new procurements.
• Everyone else. Councils, housing associations and private customers increasingly ask for something similar, often modelled on the government plan. Read the tender documents, and if they do not say, ask what the customer needs and by when.

What goes in it

Under PPN 006, a plan contains:

1. A commitment to reach net zero for your UK operations by 2050 at the latest.
2. Your baseline year and its emissions, for Scopes 1 and 2 and five Scope 3 categories: business travel, employee commuting, waste, and transport and distribution both to you and from you.
3. Your current emissions in the same format, once you have more than one year.
4. Your targets and the actions that will deliver them, including the reductions already made.
5. A declaration and sign-off: reviewed and approved by the board of directors (or equivalent management body) and signed by a director or equivalent.

The plan must then be published on your UK website and updated at least once a year. If Scopes 1, 2 and 3 are new to you, the guide to the three scopes explains them in plain English.

Three things that catch people out

• Different figures in different places. The plan must match your annual report and anything else you publish, so build them all from the same workbook.
• Employee commuting. It is one of the five required categories, and most first footprints leave it out. A short staff travel survey, or at least an honest estimate, fixes it.
• A plan that has gone out of date. Put the annual review in the diary on the day you publish. Finding out it has lapsed in the middle of a bid is a bad way to lose one.

How to write your first one

1. Measure Scopes 1 and 2. Collect twelve months of gas and electricity bills and fuel card reports, ideally for your last financial year. The carbon calculator on this site turns them into a first figure using the Government's 2026 conversion factors.
2. Add the five Scope 3 categories. Business travel comes from mileage claims and travel bookings; waste from your contractor's reports; commuting from a staff survey; and transport from what you pay couriers and hauliers, plus the onward delivery of anything you sell.
3. Set a target and list your actions. Include what you have already done, with the savings, and what comes next, with dates.
4. Get it signed off and published. Take it to the board or equivalent, put it on your website and book the review for next year.

Think of it like an MOT certificate: it does not make the car any better, but nobody will let you on the road without one, and the checks behind it are worth doing anyway.

If a private customer asks

A private customer that asks for a Carbon Reduction Plan usually has something close to the government plan in mind. The format, the length and how much Scope 3 you include can often be agreed; the honesty of the figures cannot. Label every estimate, say how you made it and when you will replace it. A buyer can accept an honest estimate with a date to improve it far more easily than a blank, or a figure that later falls apart. A good rhythm is to send your measured Scope 1 and 2 figures within three months and the finished, signed-off plan within six.