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How to write a Carbon Reduction Plan that actually scores
If you're bidding on a UK central government contract over £5m a year, you need a Carbon Reduction Plan (CRP) before you submit. No plan, no bid — your tender gets disqualified at the gate.
PPN 06/21 is the procurement policy note that introduced this rule in 2021. It applies across all in-scope central government bodies, executive agencies, and NDPBs. The CRP itself is a public document — you publish it on your own website and link to it from your bid.
Here's what actually wins evaluators over (and what loses points).
What the CRP needs to contain
PPN 06/21 mandates four sections:
- Commitment to net zero by 2050 — a statement from the supplier confirming the commitment
- Baseline emissions footprint — total emissions for a baseline year, broken into Scope 1, 2 and the relevant subset of Scope 3
- Emissions reduction targets — projected reduction trajectory toward net zero
- Reporting on progress — actual current emissions and a description of carbon reduction projects achieved
The template is published by the Cabinet Office. Use it. Evaluators are familiar with the structure and notice when you've gone off-piste.
Where bids most often lose points
After reading more CRPs than is reasonable, the same four mistakes keep coming up:
1. Scope 3 confusion
PPN 06/21 only requires a subset of Scope 3:
- Business travel
- Employee commuting
- Upstream transportation and distribution
- Downstream transportation and distribution
- Waste generated in operations
If you report the full Scope 3 inventory, you've done more than required — fine. If you report Scope 1 and 2 only, you've failed the requirement. This is the most common cause of an automatic fail.
2. The "we'll figure it out" trajectory
Evaluators want to see a credible reduction path. A CRP that says "we commit to net zero by 2050" with no interim milestones reads as box-ticking. Bidders that include a 2030 interim target (often aligned with the UK's NDC) and a 2040 milestone score consistently higher.
3. Generic carbon reduction projects
A list of "we will encourage employees to take public transport" sentences carries no weight. Specific, dated, measurable projects do:
- "Switched our London office to a 100% renewable electricity contract from October 2024 (Scope 2 reduction: ~80 tCO2e/year)"
- "Replaced our 12-strong company-car fleet with EVs by March 2025 (Scope 1 reduction: ~45 tCO2e/year)"
If you don't have specific projects to point at, start one before you bid. A modest, credible project tracks better than a fictitious large one.
4. The director sign-off
PPN 06/21 requires the CRP to be signed off by a director-level person. Buyers verify this. If your CRP has only a sustainability manager's name on it, the bid is rejected on a technicality — even if the rest is excellent.
A useful checklist before you submit
- CRP is publicly accessible at a named URL (not an attachment)
- Published within the last 12 months
- Director-level signature visible
- All four mandatory sections present
- Scope 1, Scope 2 and the five Scope 3 categories all reported
- Baseline year stated
- At least one interim milestone (2030 or sooner) on the trajectory
- At least one specific, dated reduction project with tCO2e numbers
- URL works on a clean browser (no SSO, no login wall)
The 80/20
If you only do three things on your CRP:
- Use the Cabinet Office template — don't invent your own structure
- Include the five required Scope 3 categories explicitly — even if they're estimates with a stated methodology
- Name at least one specific reduction project with hard numbers
These three alone will lift you above the median CRP that evaluators see, which buys you serious goodwill on the technical scoring round.