Developing a Carbon Reduction Plan
Developing a Carbon Reduction Plan (PPN 06/21) for your business
Climate change and Net Zero are at the forefront of the minds of businesses big and small – and with some applying for hefty government contracts, the concept of a Carbon Reduction Plan or ‘PPN 06/21’ has some scratching heads.
In 2019, it became a requirement for any businesses bidding for major government contracts to commit to Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050, in a bid from the UK Government to ensure its own green partnerships as well as encourage businesses across the board to consider their carbon emissions, and make tangible efforts to reduce them.
Not to be confused with a Corporate Social Responsibility statement, The Carbon Reduction Plan or ‘PPN 06/21’ consists of a few sections, detailing your commitment to achieving Net Zero, your current and ‘baseline’ emissions footprint, your targets and how you intend to reach them, as well as any projects and actions you have planned which you believe will reduce your emissions. When completed, businesses must publish their complete Carbon Reduction Plan.
Levett Consultancy, a Digital Transformation specialist business based in Ongar Business Centre, Essex, went through the process of completing their Carbon Reduction Plan after the policy was made a requirement for procurement of government contracts. Being an organisation with a vast experience of working in the public sector, a lot of the process was familiar to them – but they realised that to many other companies, this might not be the case.
“The need to have a Carbon Reduction Plan in place is going to affect more and more businesses in the future. The Ongar Business Centre we’re based at was really helpful, as we were able to gather us all the gas and electric readings to give us our baseline emissions. We were the first business in the centre to do it, and since we’ve had other businesses contact us asking about how to go about completing their plan.”
To complete your plan, there is a template included on the UK government webpage about the policy, but many businesses choose to create their own with their own branding. Have a look at the template
So, what do you have to do?
First, demonstrate your commitment to achieving Net Zero
This is a simple statement of your commitment to achieving Net Zero emissions in your business by 2050. This could be an overview of how you intend to reducing your emissions as far as possible, and then offsetting any ‘unavoidable’ emissions that remain.
Your baseline and current emissions
Your baseline and or current emissions may be the same thing, if this is the first time you’ve been tasked with calculating it. It refers to the carbon footprint of your business, and is calculated by the measurement of greenhouse gases your business produces both directly and indirectly; through general operations, heating your offices, fuel used in distribution, to emissions created through your workforce commuting to the workplace or working from home.
Your carbon footprint is useful to know, as it gives you the opportunity to identify ways in which your business contributes to climate change. By understanding this number, you can begin to think about ways in which you could reduce your emissions, and offset others. It can then use this rating as a reference point in the future to ensure your business is moving in the right direction.
If the whole concept of your business’ carbon footprint is new to you, your baseline and current emissions will be the same - but if your business has already been required in the past to calculate your carbon footprint, this time it would count as your baseline emissions. Your current emissions and carbon footprint would have to be calculated again, and updated every 12 months thereafter.
There are plenty of helpful resources online which take you through how to calculate your baseline and current emissions, like this one from Green Small Business.
Your target for reducing emissions
In this section of your plan, you may repeat your commitment to achieving Net Zero by 2025, or if you believe your business could do so, set a target of even achieving it even earlier.
Here you state targets which you think are achievable by your chosen timeline to 2050 or earlier. This can link into your earlier stated Baseline and Current Emissions, but your targets cannot be based off projected business growth – meaning they must reflect a very realistic view of your reduction in emissions based on how your business operates now.
A Carbon Reduction Plan or PPN 06/21 can only be marked as a pass or fail, reiterating that the purpose of the policy is to encourage businesses to take their emissions seriously and set real targets to reduce them, and that there are no ‘marks’ additionally given for unrealistic targets.
Stating your projects that will aid you in reducing your Carbon Emissions
This last section is your real opportunity to declare actions that you are taking or have planned for the future that will lead to reductions in your carbon emissions.
Many businesses are active taking steps to reduce their emissions, Carbon Reduction Plan in action or not – switching to all LED lightbulbs in their offices, replacing petrol and diesel vehicles with electric and using biodegradable and recyclable materials.
As for your own plan, some of these greener alternatives stated above may be useful to adopt – but by taking another look at your own current emissions, you are able to identify where emissions are really coming from in your own business, and where changes can be easily made to combat them. Depending on your sector, these emissions can outweigh in some areas more than others, so taking a deep dive into your own situation is the best way to understand the possibilities for your business.
Your declaration and sign off
To complete your Carbon Reduction Plan, you’ll need to have the document signed off by a representative from your Board of Directors, and then submitted.
