Writing Your Organisation’s Carbon Reduction Plan

First introduced to the tendering process through PPN 06/21, suppliers were required to publish and provide a carbon reduction plan as part of a bid for any goods, works or service with a value exceeding £5 million per annum. The purpose of the carbon reduction plan is to ensure the government’s supply chain is aligned with wider emissions targets and to reach net zero by 2050.

For many suppliers, particularly small- and medium-sized businesses, the carbon reduction plan can be an intimidating part of your bid submission. In this blog, we provide detailed and practical advice on how to produce a compliant carbon reduction plan.

What is a carbon reduction plan?

Put simply, a carbon reduction plan is a formal document which outlines your organisation’s approaches for reducing carbon emissions across all 3 scopes.

The document is broken into distinct sections, outlining:

• Your overall commitments to achieving Net Zero, providing a top-level overview of your estimated year to Net Zero, task owners responsible for achieving this and how initiatives will be developed, implemented and refined going forward.
• Baseline emissions footprint, or the first year that your emissions were calculated to compare progress against targets going forward. This should also include a brief methodology for how emissions were calculated – for instance, requesting and collating information from upstream suppliers.
• Current emissions reporting – if this is your first year completing a carbon reduction plan, this will be identical to the baseline emissions footprint.
• Carbon reduction projects, explaining what initiatives and commitments will be implemented going forward and how this will be achieved.
• Completed carbon reduction initiatives, such as achieving ISO 14001:2015 accreditation or adopting LED/lighting controls for offices and depots.
• Declaration and sign-off from a senior member of your organisation, usually the managing director, confirming the plan has been made in compliance with relevant standards.

The Cabinet Office has published a carbon reduction plan template, inclusive of guidance, to support bidders in creating a compliant plan.

Why are carbon reduction plans important?

The carbon reduction plan is quickly becoming one of the most common tender appendices and additional documents which form part of the wider bid submission. As a mandatory element, you will be required to submit your carbon reduction plan or your tender will be disqualified.

As stated above, carbon reduction plans are a standard requirement for many central government buyers, such as the NHS and Crown Commercial Services (CCS). However, they are more commonly being adopted by sub-central and local authorities, including councils and housing associations.

Consequently, failing to provide a carbon reduction plan could result in being restricted from future submissions. You should treat a carbon reduction plan as importantly as any other policy and procedure – for example, your quality policy or health and safety policy.

Steps for making a compliant carbon reduction plan

Given the importance of creating a suitable carbon reduction plan, we recommend the following process for ensuring compliance with government standards and guidelines:

Begin gathering information on your carbon emissions

Suppliers are often intimidated by the need to calculate their organisation’s entire carbon footprint. They may also be worried that figures will reflect poorly or they will be penalised. In this instance, it is important to remember the plan is unscored and a demonstration of your processes and procedures rather than an attempt to ‘catch out’ suppliers.

Online resources such as the central government’s MacKay Carbon Calculator, the Carbon Trust’s SME Carbon Footprint Calculator and Normative’s Business Carbon Calculator are a good starting point for bidders to accurately capture their emissions data.

Many calculators will also automatically divide emissions into Scope 1, 2 and 3 by source and type. This makes it easier for you to enter metrics into the carbon reduction plan, reducing the burden to individually sort different emissions.

Recap your actions to date

There is no need to list a lengthy amount of material or fabricate actions you have not taken. Authorities simply want to see that you recognise the need to reduce emissions and are responding accordingly.

Within the ‘baseline emissions footprint’ section, include a brief summary of what you have achieved so far – for example, phasing out older vehicles to ensure Euro 6 compliance, or installing environmentally friendly LED lighting to replace obsolete lighting.

Set realistic carbon reduction targets

The UK central government’s target is to achieve Net Zero by 2050 – a compliant carbon reduction plan will align with or better this date. As part of this, your plan should include:

• Implementing short-term and long-term reduction targets, timebound with specific dates to provide clarity to evaluators
• Describing specific initiatives in detail – for example, energy efficiency measures to offices or conversion to an electric vehicle fleet – to strengthen the credibility of your claims
• Explain how you will react to changes in legislation or industry best practice, ensuring you are abreast with current trends.

Once drafted, you can compare your plan against the Cabinet Office’s technical standard for completion of the plan, thereby ensuring your plans conform with the evaluator’s expectations.

Continuously review and improve your plan

There is a requirement to provide annual updates of carbon reduction plans and calculate emissions for each calendar year. You should also include nominated individuals or task groups to convene for periodic meetings; it is still suitable and sufficient and aligns with best practice.

Bid and tender support

Since 2009, we have supported clients with over 7,000 PQQ, SQ and ITT submissions, maintaining an 85% success rate. This includes:

• Bid and tender writing support, where one of our expert bid writers completes the quality element of the submission based on information provided by your subject matter experts
• Bid review services, where a quality manager performs a line-by-line review of content produced by your internal bid team
• Social value bid writing support, where our bid and tender writers present your social value proposals and initiatives.

If you would like to learn about how we can help you win a tender, our sales and marketing team are contactable at info@executivecompass.co.uk or via telephone 0800 612 5563.