Answer the carbon and social value questions in your next cleaning tender

Who asks cleaning and FM firms for carbon figures?

Most public sector clients, and many private ones. Central government contracts above £5 million a year need a Carbon Reduction Plan under PPN 006. NHS trusts ask for a Net Zero Commitment on smaller contracts, and from April 2027 new NHS procurements need a Carbon Reduction Plan at every size (see our NHS suppliers page). Councils, academy trusts and universities often ask their own net zero and social value questions. Corporate clients send supplier sustainability questionnaires because your work forms part of their Scope 3 emissions.

The questions are usually similar: what are your emissions, what is your plan to reduce them, and how do you treat your workforce? One set of measured figures and a written record of your practices answers most of them.

What makes up a cleaning company’s carbon footprint?

For most cleaning, FM and grounds maintenance firms, travel dominates. The report measures:

• Vans and company cars: petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric, from fuel card litres or mileage, in Scope 1
• Equipment fuel: petrol mowers, strimmers, leaf blowers, pressure washers and generators, counted as plant and machinery fuel in Scope 1
• Staff driving their own cars between sites: mobile cleaners, supervisors and area managers, from mileage claims, counted as business travel
• Employee commuting: how your team gets to their first site, estimated from a few simple questions
• Your own premises: electricity and gas at your office, yard or store, from bills or estimated from floor area
• Waste you dispose of through your own waste contract
• Purchases (optional): a spend-based estimate for chemicals, consumables, equipment and other purchases, using Defra spend-based factors

Every source is labelled as measured, estimated from activity data, estimated from a benchmark, or a data gap, and every calculation is shown in the appendix.

Whose emissions are the client’s building?

This trips up a lot of cleaning firms, so it is worth being clear. The footprint follows the GHG Protocol operational control approach: you report emissions from the things you control. The electricity your floor scrubbers draw at a client’s office, the hot water your team uses and the heating in the building all belong to the client, because they run the building and pay the bills. Bags left in the client’s own bins are part of their waste, too.

What is yours is everything you run: your vans, your equipment fuel, your own premises, your staff’s travel and any waste you take away under your own contract. That keeps your Carbon Reduction Plan accurate and stops the same emissions being counted twice. If a tender asks about energy use on site, you can describe the efficient equipment and practices you use without adding the client’s kWh to your own figures.

Social value: show what you already do

Cleaning and FM are people businesses, and buyers know it. The social value questions usually ask about pay, training, safety and fair treatment, and you probably do more than your current bid answers say. Your report records:

• whether you pay the Real Living Wage or the National Living Wage, and the benefits you offer
• training days and budget per person
• written risk assessments, your health and safety policy, incidents and lost-time incidents
• your harassment policy and diversity monitoring
• supplier due diligence, whether you have a modern slavery statement, and your payment terms

Labour-intensive services are an area where buyers look closely at modern slavery risk, including in agency labour and subcontracted work. Being able to say what checks you do, in writing, helps. Our guide to modern slavery statements for small businesses explains what a good one covers, and our social value guide shows how to make modest activity read well in a bid.

From figures to a Carbon Reduction Plan

ESG Now does not generate a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan document. It gives you the carbon footprint, baseline and figures you need to complete the official template. You copy in your Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 figures, add the reduction measures from your action plan, such as route planning between sites, switching urban vans to electric or moving to battery-powered grounds equipment, and get a director to sign it off. Our carbon reduction plan template guide walks through each section.

How long it takes

A firm with vans usually finishes in 30 to 45 minutes. Have your fuel card statements or rough annual mileage per vehicle, staff mileage claims, fuel receipts for equipment, a recent energy bill for your office or yard, and your headcount to hand. Answers save as you go. Your first report is free, with no card needed. Start your report and send your next tender proper figures.