View all news

Reducing our carbon footprint

The recent COP26 conference and the various news headlines on the impact of climate change have brought issues on the environment and sustainability to the forefront and leave no doubt that action needs to be taken now.  From a business perspective two factors have ensured that this topic has moved up the agenda.  The first was the issue of the government’s Procurement Policy Note (PPN)06/21 which set out how suppliers will need to demonstrate their Net Zero Carbon Reduction Plans if they wish to respond to tenders for government contracts and the second is the NHS’s ambition, set out in October 2020, to be the world’s first carbon net zero national health service. 

Trees
Trees

Like many organisations PCC has had environmental and sustainability policies in place and we have all done our bit to support the environment such as using public transport, recycling and using energy efficient technology in our Leeds office.  The time has come now though to up our game so that we can demonstrate that PCC is not only aware of its impact on the environment but that, as part of the NHS supply chain, we are taking action to support our clients in the NHS to meet their targets.  Taking a pragmatic approach we also need to ensure the sustainability of our own business so we can compete for government contracts and places on frameworks.  PPN 06/21 currently only applies to contracts over £5 million however the plan is that by 2024 this will apply to all contracts.

As a small business PCC needs to balance its desire to meet its environmental and sustainability responsibilities with the resources this will require.  We have put together a small working group who are reviewing what the organisation already has in place, identify relevant targets, what data we will need to collate and the actions we need to take to meet those targets.  There is a lot of information out there and conflicting views on what is needed – for example, one way of carbon off-setting is tree planting, however surprisingly this isn’t always the best option.  As a predominantly home-based workforce this will make assessing our current carbon footprint a bit trickier – home-based working hasn’t reduced the carbon emissions, it has just transplanted it and made it harder to assess. 

In April 2020 PCC switched to a mainly virtual delivery platform for our events and workshops.  If we can take any small silver lining from the pandemic this switch to virtual delivery has helped PCC to reduce its carbon footprint with the additional benefit of proving popular with our clients.  We plan to continue with this delivery model but are also looking forward to when we can meet you all face to face, albeit in an environmental conscious way.

When you are thinking of working with PCC, be assured we are actively working to reduce our carbon footprint and responsibly addressing environmental and sustainability factors across all our work areas.

Last Updated on 1 February 2022