The carbon footprint and ESG evidence your commissioners now ask for

Who asks healthcare providers about carbon?

Mostly the organisations that commission your services. If you hold an NHS contract, as many dental practices, opticians, pharmacies, physiotherapy clinics and community providers do, the NHS Net Zero Supplier Roadmap applies to you. Smaller contracts have needed a published Net Zero Commitment, and from 1 April 2027 new procurements need a Carbon Reduction Plan with baseline and current emissions. Every NHS procurement also gives at least 10% of the marks to net zero and social value.

Care homes and domiciliary care agencies can meet similar sustainability and social value questions in council care tenders, and private clinics may be asked by corporate clients. Our NHS suppliers page covers the tender rules in full.

What makes up a healthcare provider’s carbon footprint?

It depends a lot on what kind of service you run. The questionnaire has a premises type for clinics, surgeries and care settings, and a Healthcare sector option, so the questions fit how you actually work. The report measures:

• Heating: mains gas, heating oil or LPG. In a care home, which is heated around the clock, this is usually the biggest single source.
• Electricity: from your bills, including clinical equipment, lighting and IT, reported location-based and market-based so a renewable tariff shows up properly
• Refrigerant top-ups on air conditioning and cold rooms, from your engineer’s service records
• Company vehicles, such as a pharmacy delivery van, from fuel litres or mileage
• Staff driving their own cars for work: for a domiciliary care agency, carers’ mileage between visits is often the largest source of all
• Employee commuting, estimated from how your team gets to work, which matters for shift-based teams
• Waste: general waste and mixed recycling, from tonnages or estimated from bin sizes
• Water, from your bills

Some healthcare-specific sources are not covered. Anaesthetic gases such as nitrous oxide and medical inhalers are not calculated, and clinical or hazardous waste is not a separate stream. If any of these are significant for you, note them in your report and ask your supplier or waste contractor for quantities. Being clear about scope is exactly what an NHS assessor wants to see.

Your people, your records and your data

Healthcare is a people business, and commissioners know it. The social and governance sections of your report record the things they ask about most:

• whether you pay the Real Living Wage or the National Living Wage, and the benefits you offer
• training days and budget, which most providers already track
• written risk assessments, your health and safety policy, and incidents and lost-time incidents
• your harassment policy and diversity monitoring
• data protection, UK GDPR and ICO registration

Each practice is marked as established, developing, not in place, not applicable or unknown. Nothing is scored against other providers. Most clinics and care services find they already have much of this in place because of how they operate. The report simply puts it in one dated document you can share.

Where healthcare providers usually cut emissions first

Heating controls, boiler servicing and insulation tend to come first in care settings. Switching to a REGO-backed renewable electricity tariff changes your market-based figure straight away. For domiciliary care, smarter rotas that cut miles between visits reduce both carbon and mileage costs. Your private action plan puts these in order for your service, using your own figures.

How long it takes

A clinic, practice or care setting usually finishes in 30 to 45 minutes. Have your electricity and gas bills, your bin details, a rough idea of business mileage claims and your headcount to hand. Answers save as you go, so you can stop between appointments and carry on later. Your first report is free, with no card needed. Start your report and have your carbon figures ready before the next commissioner asks.