If you bid for public sector work, your Carbon Reduction Plan can decide whether anyone reads your bid. Without one, your tender can be rejected before the buyer looks at your price or your people.
This guide covers what to include and how to make your plan credible, so it helps you win work rather than just ticking a box.
Do you need one?
Central government departments and their arm’s-length bodies ask for a Carbon Reduction Plan on contracts worth more than £5 million a year.
The requirement sits in Procurement Policy Note 006, which replaced PPN 06/21 for tenders run under the Procurement Act 2023 from February 2025.
The NHS goes further and has extended the requirement, in a proportionate way, to all new procurements.
Even if your next tender falls below the threshold, more buyers in the public and private sectors are asking similar questions to align their supply chains to Net Zero. A plan you build now will keep working for you.
Pass or fail, and what it means for your bid
Buyers check your plan at the selection stage; it’s marked pass or fail and is not scored against other bidders currently.
A strong plan will not earn you extra points by itself, but a missing or weak one can take you out of the running.
Your advantage comes later: climate and environment questions are scored in the social value section, and your plan gives you the evidence and numbers to answer them well.
As sustainable supply chains mature, it is expected that demonstrable progress will be expected and scored against. For example, from 2030 suppliers for NHS contracts will only qualify if their Carbon Reduction Plans show sufficient action and continued decarbonisation.
What your plan needs to include
The government publishes a template; buyers expect to see:
- A Net Zero commitment. Commit to net zero by 2050 or earlier.
- Your baseline emissions. This is the year you measure progress against, so pick one you can back up with data.
- Your current emissions. Cover the energy you buy, the fuel you burn and a set group of indirect sources, such as business travel and staff commuting. Some buyers, like the NHS from April 2027, require all downstream categories to be measured.
- Your targets. Use specific numbers and dates, and explain how you will reach them.
- Your projects. List what you have already done and what comes next.
- Sign-off. A director or board member must approve the plan.
You also need to publish the plan on your website, so buyers can find it quickly.
Five ways to make your plan credible
1. Start with good data. Gather your energy bills, fuel records and travel expenses early. Gaps in the data are the most common reason plans take longer than expected.
2. Set targets you can reach. A bold figure with no route to it raises questions. A smaller target with clear steps behind it reads as honest and gives buyers confidence.
3. Be specific about projects. “We will reduce energy use” says very little. “We replaced our warehouse lighting with LEDs and cut electricity use by 18%” shows what you did and what it achieved.
4. Cover the reporting business. If you bid as a subsidiary, your plan should cover the company that is bidding. A group report that doesn’t break out your figures can cause problems at selection, although some buyers request global reporting (e.g. the NHS to achieve their highest Evergreen levels)
5. Keep it up to date. Review your plan every year; buyers can tell when a plan was written once and then left alone.
Mistakes that cost bids
Some plans fall down on the basics. The most common problems are:
- not planning ahead and relying on poor data quality
- not assigning actions to specific people and keeping them accountable
- no board sign-off
- a baseline with no data behind it
- targets with no dates
- a plan that never made it onto the website
Overclaiming is another. Buyers check, and a plan that overstates its progress does more harm than a modest one.
Put your plan to work
Once your plan is signed off, use it. Add your results to tender answers, case studies and sales conversations.
The suppliers who stand out can say what they measured, what they changed and what happened as a result.
Need a hand?
At Positive Planet, we help businesses measure their emissions, build a plan and keep improving it, so you can bid with confidence.
If you have a tender coming up, get in touch, and we’ll help you get ready.