PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan software
Bidding for central government or NHS contracts means publishing a Carbon Reduction Plan that meets PPN 006. Gaia builds the Annex A document from emissions you already measure, so the plan behind your next bid is accurate, current and ready to publish.
The Carbon Reduction Plan your bid depends on
Generate a compliant plan from real emissions data at the click of a button, then keep it up to date year after year
What is PPN 006?
Procurement Policy Note 006 (PPN 006) sets out how UK central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies take account of suppliers' carbon reduction commitments when awarding major contracts. It applies to procurements from 24 February 2025 and replaces PPN 06/21, which had been in place since September 2021, updating the rules to sit under the Procurement Act 2023.
The requirement is simple to state and easy to fail. If you bid for an in-scope contract worth more than £5 million a year (including VAT), you must publish a Carbon Reduction Plan on your own website. The plan has to confirm your commitment to achieving Net Zero by 2050, set out your current emissions in a prescribed format, be approved at board level and be updated at least annually. It is a condition of participation: without a compliant plan, your bid can be excluded before anyone reads it.
The NHS applies the same standard more widely. Since April 2023 the NHS has required a published Carbon Reduction Plan for new contracts above £5 million a year, and from April 2024 the requirement extends to all new NHS procurements, with a full plan above the £5 million threshold and a Net Zero commitment below it. A plan prepared to the PPN 006 guidelines is accepted by the NHS, so one document covers both routes. Gaia's carbon accounting software produces that document from your measured emissions.
What a compliant Carbon Reduction Plan must include
The PPN 006 technical standard prescribes both the emissions reporting and the governance around it. Miss either and the plan does not comply.
The emissions reporting
The governance around it
The exact document the standard asks for
Gaia generates your plan in the Cabinet Office Annex A structure: the Net Zero commitment, baseline emissions footprint, current emissions reporting, reduction targets, carbon reduction projects, methodology and the declaration with sign-off. The figures come from the same calculation engine as your Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) and GHG reports, so the numbers in your bid reconcile with the numbers in your accounts. And if a required Scope 3 category has no data yet, the plan says "Not reported" and flags it rather than printing a silent zero, so you fix the gap before a procurement team finds it.
From reporting years to a finished plan
Choose your baseline and current reporting years, confirm the UK emissions basis PPN 006 asks for, and pick the five required Scope 3 categories or all fifteen GHG Protocol categories if you report more. Gaia then shows you the emissions tables to review and pre-fills the narrative sections from the reduction targets and initiatives you already track, so the writing starts half done. The declaration wording required by the standard is built in.
A PDF to submit, a web page to publish, the data behind both
Every generated plan produces three files: the Annex A PDF for your bid, a self-contained web page you can publish on your own site (which PPN 006 requires), and an Excel workbook with the figures behind the plan by scope and category for procurement teams and auditors. Your organisation's logo sits on the document, and an optional public link lets you share the plan with anyone before the files go up.
Keep the plan current for every bid
A Carbon Reduction Plan is not a one-off. The standard expects an update at least annually, within six months of your financial year end, and procurement teams check the publication date. In Gaia each year's plan sits alongside the last, drafts save as you go, and next year's update regenerates from the emissions data you have been collecting all along. No starting again in a blank template.
See a PPN 006 plan built from real data
Built on the standards PPN 006 names
The technical standard requires figures prepared to the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard using the UK Government's conversion factors. That is exactly how Gaia calculates every number, using the annual factors published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
Trusted climate data
Common questions about PPN 006
What is PPN 006 and how does it relate to PPN 06/21?
Procurement Policy Note 006 is the Cabinet Office policy requiring suppliers bidding for major central government contracts to publish a Carbon Reduction Plan. It applies to procurements from 24 February 2025 and replaces PPN 06/21, carrying the same core requirements forward under the Procurement Act 2023: the Net Zero by 2050 commitment, the emissions reporting and the publication rules are unchanged. A plan that met PPN 06/21 follows the same shape under PPN 006.
Does PPN 006 apply to my business?
It applies when you bid for an in-scope central government contract worth more than £5 million a year including VAT. The NHS goes further: from April 2024 all new NHS procurements ask for one, with a full Carbon Reduction Plan above the £5 million threshold and a Net Zero commitment below it. Many prime contractors now ask the same of their supply chains, so suppliers well under the threshold are increasingly asked for a plan too.
Which emissions does a Carbon Reduction Plan have to cover?
All Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (energy) emissions, plus five named Scope 3 categories: upstream transportation and distribution, waste generated in operations, business travel, employee commuting, and downstream transportation and distribution. Figures are reported in CO2e covering the seven Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gases, prepared to the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard with the UK Government conversion factors. Gaia measures all of this and can also report every Scope 3 category you record beyond the required five.
Is there a required format?
Yes. The plan must follow the technical standard's Annex A template, including its declaration wording, and be published on your own website. Gaia generates the document in that structure with the declaration built in, as a PDF for the bid and a web page you can publish, plus the underlying data in Excel.
Where do the figures come from?
From the emissions you measure in Gaia. Connect Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or Oracle NetSuite, import spreadsheets, or let the platform's artificial intelligence (AI) read the figures out of PDFs and invoices; Gaia calculates the emissions and the plan draws on the same numbers as your other reports. The integrations page has the full list.
Does Gaia approve or verify the plan?
No, and nothing does that for you. Board approval, the director sign-off, publishing the plan on your website and keeping it updated annually stay with you, and generating a document does not by itself qualify you for any contract. What Gaia does is prepare the compliant document from measured data, keep the evidence behind every figure ready for scrutiny, and make the annual update a regeneration rather than a rewrite.
Have the plan ready before the tender asks for it
See how Gaia builds your PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan from data you already hold, with pricing from £300 + VAT per month.