The mandatory sections of a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan

PPN 006, formerly PPN 06/21, does not just ask you to write something about carbon. It sets out a specific Carbon Reduction Plan structure for major UK public contracts, and a bid can be rejected if the plan is missing the parts the policy requires. The good news is that the template is short and the required content is well defined. Once you know what each section is for, filling it in is mostly a matter of having your figures ready and being honest about your targets.

Here are the sections a compliant plan has to contain, and what an assessor is looking for in each one.

1. Publishing and commitment details

The plan opens by stating who it belongs to and when it was published. It has to carry a clear commitment to achieving Net Zero by 2050 for your UK operations. This is the headline pledge the whole document supports, so it needs to be unambiguous and it needs a date. The plan also has to be published on your own UK website and kept accessible, because the buyer will expect to find it there, not just attached to your bid.

2. Baseline emissions footprint

Your baseline is the reference year you measure progress against. This section reports your total Scope 1, Scope 2 and the required Scope 3 emissions for that baseline year in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, normally written as tCO2e. Once you have chosen a baseline year you keep using it, so pick a year you have reasonable data for. If this is your first plan, your current reporting year may also be your baseline year; the important part is to say that clearly. If you are unsure how the scopes break down, our guide to Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions walks through what belongs where.

3. Current emissions reporting

Alongside the baseline, the plan reports your emissions for the current reporting year, using the same scopes, same boundary and same units. Putting the two years side by side is what lets a reader see whether your emissions are actually falling. This section is why the plan has to be refreshed regularly rather than written once and forgotten.

4. Emissions reduction targets

Here you state where you intend to get to and by when. A target might be an absolute reduction in tCO2e, a percentage cut against your baseline, or a set of interim milestones on the way to Net Zero. The policy does not judge you on how ambitious the numbers are, but the targets have to be real and stated clearly. A chart showing your projected reduction against the baseline is a common and effective way to present this.

5. Carbon reduction projects and measures

This section is the evidence that your commitment is more than a line at the top of the page. It describes the measures you have already completed and the ones you have planned: switching to a renewable electricity tariff, replacing gas heating, moving to electric vans, cutting waste to landfill, changing how staff travel. Where you can, say what each measure saved or is expected to save. Concrete measures with numbers behind them read far better than vague intentions.

6. Declaration and sign-off

Finally, the plan has to be signed off at director or board level and dated. This is not a formality. The signature is a statement that the figures and commitments have been reviewed and approved by someone accountable for the business. The plan should also confirm it has been completed in line with the reporting standards PPN 006 references, which include the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and the government’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines.

Frequently asked questions

Keeping the plan compliant over time

A Carbon Reduction Plan is not a one-off document. The technical standard says it should be reviewed and updated annually, and within six months of your organisation’s financial year-end, so that the current-year figures stay current and the sign-off stays fresh. A plan with a two-year-old date on it is a common reason for a buyer to query a submission.

The mechanical parts of all this, the scope totals, the baseline comparison and the target projection, are exactly what an automated tool handles well. Carbon Sorted builds every section to this template, computes the figures from the current government conversion factors, and checks the finished document against the PPN 006 requirements before you export it. If you are starting from scratch, the step-by-step writing guide puts these sections in the order that saves the most time. You can start from the compliant template or read more about what PPN 006 requires before you begin.