From April 2027, NHS suppliers must publicly report their targets and emissions and publish a Carbon Reduction Plan addressing their global emissions, aligned to the NHS net zero target and covering Scope 1, 2 and 3.
That is a material step up from where most suppliers are today, and the gap is bigger than it looks.
What Evergreen actually is
The Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment is an online self-assessment through which suppliers share sustainability information with the NHS. It returns a maturity level reflecting how well you align with NHS environmental priorities, particularly carbon reporting.
The distinction from PPN 006 matters. PPN 006 is a gate: you have a compliant published Carbon Reduction Plan or you cannot bid. Evergreen produces a score, and scores get compared. Meeting the minimum keeps you eligible; a higher maturity level is a competitive position against suppliers who did the minimum.
The current position
Since April 2023, new NHS contracts above £5 million per annum have required suppliers to publish a Carbon Reduction Plan covering UK Scope 1 and 2 emissions plus a subset of Scope 3, matching the PPN 006 requirement.
Most NHS suppliers built to exactly that specification. It is the floor, and the floor is about to move.
What changes in April 2027
Three expansions, in increasing order of difficulty.
From UK-only to global. A supplier with manufacturing in Asia or distribution across Europe has been reporting UK operations. From April 2027 the plan must address global emissions. For an importer, this is often the majority of the footprint appearing for the first time.
From a Scope 3 subset to full Scope 3. PPN 006 asks for five categories: business travel, employee commuting, upstream transport and distribution, waste, and downstream transport and distribution. Full Scope 3 covers all relevant categories, and for most product suppliers the dominant one is purchased goods and services, which the PPN subset excludes entirely.
This is the single largest change. Suppliers routinely find that the category they have never calculated is several times larger than everything they have been reporting.
From reporting to public target commitment. Targets and emissions must be publicly reported and aligned to the NHS net zero trajectory, not simply disclosed internally or to the buyer.
Why the timeline is tighter than it appears
April 2027 sounds distant. Working backwards, it is not.
Supplier data collection for purchased goods and services is the constraint. Getting emissions data out of your own supply chain takes months, depends on suppliers who have no obligation to help you, and cannot be compressed by adding effort at your end. Companies starting this in early 2027 will be using spend-based estimates, which produce a defensible but unflattering number and a weaker maturity score.
The suppliers who will score well in April 2027 are the ones who started supplier engagement in 2026.
What good preparation looks like
Establish the global boundary now. Before calculating anything, define which entities, sites and activities are in scope worldwide. Getting this wrong at the start means restating later, and restatements are visible.
Map Scope 3 before you calculate it. Work out which categories are material for your business. Most suppliers find two or three dominate and the rest are noise. Effort belongs where the emissions are, and a well-argued materiality assessment is itself evidence of maturity.
Start supplier engagement early. Primary data from suppliers beats spend-based estimates on both accuracy and score. This is a relationship exercise with a long lead time.
Build for annual repetition. Evergreen is not a one-off. The assessment recurs, the maturity level is expected to improve, and the year-on-year comparison only works if the method stays consistent.
Align targets with the NHS trajectory. Generic targets score less well than targets demonstrably aligned to the NHS net zero pathway.
How we help
Global footprint. Scope 1, 2 and 3 across all operations, with the boundary documented so it holds across annual cycles. See carbon footprint consulting.
Full Scope 3. The category that decides your number is usually purchased goods and services. Scope 3 consulting covers materiality assessment, supplier data collection, and the calculation.
Carbon Reduction Plan. Drafted to the requirements in force, covering global emissions and full Scope 3, ready to publish.
Target setting. Science-based targets where you want the trajectory to stand up against the NHS pathway.
Annual cycle. Running the recalculation on the platform so each year is an update rather than a rebuild, and improvement is visible in the series.
If you already have a PPN 006 plan
You are further along than a standing start, but the gap is specific: geography and purchased goods and services. Both are data problems rather than analysis problems, which means they take calendar time.
The practical question is whether your current plan was built as a one-off bid document or as the first year of a series. If it was the former, the April 2027 requirement is effectively a fresh start.
Read the PPN 006 requirements for the baseline obligation, or tell us where you are.
Sources: NHS England Evergreen sustainable supplier assessment, NHS Net Zero Supplier Roadmap, UK Procurement Policy Note 006, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard.
