Almost every carbon question in a tender is one of three things: what your emissions are, what you are doing to reduce them, and who other than you has checked.
A measured footprint means scope 1 and scope 2 at minimum, and increasingly the scope 3 categories that matter to your business. That last part is where answers fall down: for most suppliers the majority of the footprint sits in purchased goods and services, and a buyer who knows that reads a scope 1 and 2 only response as an incomplete one.
A reduction plan means targets, interventions, owners and dates. For UK central government contracts above the published threshold it takes the formal shape of a Carbon Reduction Plan under PPN 006; for everyone else it is the same document without the policy note behind it.
Independent verification is the part that separates a submission from a claim. A self-declared figure asks the evaluator to take your word for it. It is also the cheapest thing to get wrong, because an unverified number can be challenged and a challenged number damages the whole submission. Every NCZ level above the free Blue Award includes independent verification that internationally recognised calculation and reporting standards have been met.
Last reviewed: September 2026