CarbonPass vs Green Business: a self-serve, fixed-price alternative

The clearest difference is how each is priced. CarbonPass is an annual plan — Free, then £199, £499 or £1,499 a year — under which you can generate and re-generate CRPs as often as you need while your plan is active, plus an optional £100 human Completion Check. The number is published up front. Green Business prices its Carbon Reduction Plan by quote: per its site, the CRP is costed by business size, type and level of support, and you book a call for a tailored figure.

The one public number on the site is carbon footprinting, which starts at £599+VAT — but that is the footprinting entry price, not a stated CRP price, so treat the CRP as quote-based until you have it in writing. Which works out cheaper depends on your situation: CarbonPass gives you a fixed figure you can see today and unlimited re-generation for the annual fee, while Green Business quotes against your specific size and how much consultant support you want. See our guide to what a CRP costs in the UK, or how it sits alongside other tools in our scored best-CRP-software comparison.

The core difference is the delivery model. CarbonPass is self-serve software: you upload your electricity, gas and fuel bills, AI extraction reads them, and you drive the plan to completion yourself. Green Business is a consultant-led hybrid — in its own words, “human expertise meets smart systems.” A 10–15 minute online scoping tool feeds an expert-led, eight-step delivery in which their team collects and validates your data and guides you through sign-off.

The right choice comes down to how much you want to do yourself. If you are happy to enter your own data and just need the compliant plan, CarbonPass's self-serve workflow is quick and keeps you in control. If you would rather hand the work to a consultant who chases the numbers, checks them and walks you through approval — which can matter if you have no in-house sustainability staff — Green Business's guided delivery is built for exactly that. Both routes end in a PPN 006-compliant CRP you can publish and submit with a bid.

Both start quickly, but the finish lines differ. CarbonPass targets a first CRP in about 20 minutes: you upload your bills and the tool extracts the figures, so the main input is having your documents to hand. Green Business's online scoping takes a similar 10–15 minutes, but that is the start of a consultant-led process: data collection and validation typically run one to six weeks, and the company says it has turned a plan around in as little as 36 hours when a deadline is tight.

So if you have a bid due this week and your utility bills ready, self-serve is the faster path to a finished document. If your timeline is a few weeks and you would rather a consultant gather and check the data for you, Green Business's schedule is designed around that hand-off — with an expedited option when the deadline leaves no room.

CarbonPass focuses on the compliance deliverable: a PPN 006 CRP (PDF and DOCX), a public Carbon Passport page you can link from bids, an optional £100 human Completion Check, and published guidance on the NHS Evergreen assessment.

Green Business, per its site, wraps the CRP in a broader sustainability offer. Alongside the plan it provides its own Green Business Certification and third-party verification, plus advisory on B Corp, SECR, science-based (SBTi) targets and ISO 14001-type environmental management systems; it says it is trusted by over 300 businesses. If you want a recognised certification, independent verification or a wider decarbonisation roadmap bundled with the CRP — rather than just the compliance document — that breadth is a genuine advantage. If you only need the PPN 006 plan itself, the focused CarbonPass deliverable keeps the scope, and the price, tight.

Green Business is a fair choice — and likely the better one — if you want more than a self-serve document. If you have no in-house sustainability staff and would rather a consultant collect and validate your data and guide you through sign-off, its expert-led delivery is built for that hand-off. It is also the stronger fit if you want a recognised certification (its own Green Business Certification), third-party verification, or broader advisory — B Corp, SECR, science-based targets, an ISO 14001-type management system — bundled alongside the CRP, and it can expedite delivery when a deadline is tight. CarbonPass is the better fit when you are happy to do the data entry yourself and want a fixed, published price with unlimited re-generation, bill-upload speed, a public Carbon Passport, and NHS Evergreen guidance built around the compliance path.

Is CarbonPass a good alternative to Green Business?

Yes, if you are happy to do the data entry yourself and want fixed-price, self-serve software rather than consultant-led delivery. Both are UK routes to a PPN 006-compliant Carbon Reduction Plan for SMEs bidding for public-sector work. CarbonPass is an annual plan with unlimited CRPs while active, reads your uploaded utility bills, produces the plan in about 20 minutes, and adds a public Carbon Passport page and a £100 human Completion Check. Green Business pairs a short online scoping tool with expert, consultant-led delivery and can bundle its own certification and third-party verification.

What is the price difference between CarbonPass and Green Business?

CarbonPass publishes its price up front: a Free/£199/£499/£1,499-per-year plan (unlimited CRPs while active), plus an optional £100 Completion Check. Green Business prices its Carbon Reduction Plan by quote — costed by business size, type and level of support, with a call to get a tailored figure. The only public number on its site is carbon footprinting, which starts at £599+VAT; that is the footprinting entry price, not a stated CRP price, so treat the CRP as quote-based and ask them for a written quote before comparing.

Which is faster?

It depends on the route. CarbonPass targets about 20 minutes by reading your uploaded electricity, gas and fuel bills with AI extraction, so the main input is having your bills to hand. Green Business's online scoping takes a similar 10–15 minutes, but it feeds a consultant-led process: data collection and validation typically run one to six weeks, and the company says it has delivered in as little as 36 hours for tight deadlines. If you have a bid due this week and your bills ready, self-serve is the faster finish; if you would rather a consultant gather and check the data, expect a few weeks.

Do both work for NHS bids?

Yes. Both produce a PPN 006-compliant CRP that NHS suppliers can publish and submit. Since April 2024 the NHS applies a carbon requirement to all new procurements proportionately — a full CRP for contracts of £5m/year or more and for frameworks, and a lighter Net Zero Commitment below that. CarbonPass also publishes guidance on the NHS Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment; Green Business positions its CRPs as opening doors to NHS and public-sector contracts but does not name Evergreen on its site.