Carbon Reduction

Support to create and execute your carbon reduction plan.

What is a carbon reduction plan?

At its simplest, it does what it says on the tin – maps out an action plan to reduce your Green House Gas emissions. The UK procurement note PPN 06/21 has caused a flurry of activity – any organisation wishing to bid for contracts over £5 million per annum (excluding VAT) with Central Government Departments, their Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies must now have a compliant carbon reduction plan.

So whether you are bidding for such a thing or not, it makes sense to use a compliant format as it is likely this will ultimately cascade through all supply chains and even become a mandatory report for all businesses.

So what do you need to get started?

To get started you need to do some emissions footprints:

Baseline emissions footprint (the organisation’s carbon footprint against which all future plans will be compared).
Current emissions report.

Then you are ready to plan! Don’t worry if you haven’t done this yet, there are many ways to produce them from do it yourself to fully supported. Do get on with it though, have it ready before someone asks.

What's in the plan?

To be compliant you need 6 elements:

A declaration of the organisation’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions (including a target year).
Baseline emissions footprint (this is a calculation of the organisation’s carbon footprint against which all future plans will be compared).
Current emissions report (the emissions from the most recent year calculated – must be less than 12 months old).
Emissions reduction targets (5-year reduction target and report of progress against pre-existing targets).
Carbon Reduction Projects that have been completed and that you plan do to in the future (including environmental management measures, certification schemes or specific carbon reduction measures that will be in effect during the performance of the contract).
Declaration and Sign Off (a director must sign off the plan).

Then what?

Your reduction plan must be published on your website. The good news is there is no scoring of you plan, it is a pass fail item in the procurement process.

However, you should have a strong business case for reducing carbon anyway – if you don’t we can help!

Then having made your public declaration we would recommend an Outcomes and Key Results Plan is generated and managed to deliver the commitments you have made.

We can help you identify suitable projects that will help you reach your targets and, where appropriate support you to deliver them or put you in touch with specialist organisations who can help you.

Achieving net zero emissions is a long game. It needs a consistent focus to ensure you achieve year-on-year reductions, just as you would any other business targets. Sustainable X is committed to helping as many organisations as possible get started and progress on their paths to Net Zero.

If you want a no obligation chat on how to move your business forward please get in touch.