NHS Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment: a supplier's guide

The Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment is a self-assessment tool published by the NHS through its Greener NHS programme. Suppliers use it to report where they are on their sustainability journey; the NHS uses it to understand the maturity of its supply base and to steer suppliers towards its net-zero goals.

According to NHS England, the NHS was the first health system in the world to commit to net zero, with a target of net zero by 2040 for the emissions it controls directly and by 2045 for the emissions it can influence — which includes the goods and services bought from suppliers. Evergreen is the mechanism that connects individual supplier plans to that system-wide ambition, and it is being embedded across NHS procurement routes including NHS Supply Chain frameworks.

Crucially, Evergreen does not replace the PPN 006 requirement — it builds on it. A published Carbon Reduction Plan is the entry ticket the assessment expects you to already hold.

Evergreen is structured as a ladder of maturity levels, so a small first-time supplier and a large corporate can both find their starting point and improve over time. The exact wording evolves, but the shape is consistent:

• Level 1 — foundations. A published PPN 006-compliant Carbon Reduction Plan with a Net Zero commitment, your baseline emissions, and the plan available on your website. This is the gateway: without it you cannot credibly progress.
• Level 2 — embedding. Evidence that the plan is being acted on: quantified reduction targets, year-on-year reporting against your baseline, and governance showing carbon is owned at board level.
• Level 3 — leading. Deeper commitments such as validated (science-based) targets, active engagement with your own suppliers to cut Scope 3 emissions, and transparent public reporting.

Whatever the precise level names on the assessment you are sent, the pattern holds: everything above Level 1 assumes you already have a compliant CRP. Getting Level 1 right is therefore the single highest-value step, and the one CarbonPass is built to deliver.

Level 1 of Evergreen and a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan for the NHS ask for the same core evidence. A compliant plan gives Evergreen exactly what Level 1 needs:

• A commitment to achieving Net Zero, with a target year
• A baseline year and your Scope 1, Scope 2 and the five required Scope 3 categories in tCO2e, using the GHG Protocol and current DEFRA conversion factors
• Emissions-reduction measures, director-level sign-off, and publication on your website

In other words, complete a compliant CRP and you have satisfied the substance of Evergreen Level 1. The NHS is not asking suppliers to invent a second document — it is asking them to hold the CRP that PPN 006 already mandates, and to keep improving it.

The general PPN 006 commitment is Net Zero by 2050. The NHS goes further for its supply chain: its influenceable emissions must reach net zero by 2045. The NHS net-zero supplier roadmap steps suppliers towards that target over several years.

The dates that matter most to a supplier today: since April 2024, a carbon requirement has applied to all new NHS procurements, scaled to value — a full Carbon Reduction Plan for contracts of £5 million a year or more and for all new frameworks, and a lighter Net Zero Commitment for lower-value procurements (many buyers ask for a full CRP regardless), per NHS England's CRP procurement guidance. From 2027, the NHS expects supplier Carbon Reduction Plans to commit specifically to net zero by 2045 rather than only the general 2050 date, and later stages of the roadmap tie continued eligibility to demonstrable progress against that commitment.

Practically, that means an NHS-facing CRP should be built so the target year can be set to 2045, and refreshed each year as the roadmap tightens. Read our NHS CRP requirements guide for the detail.

CarbonPass generates a fully PPN 006-compliant Carbon Reduction Plan from your utility bills in about 20 minutes — the document Evergreen Level 1 expects you to hold. You upload your bills, answer a few questions, and the platform calculates your Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions using the GHG Protocol and current DEFRA factors, then produces a plan you can publish and cite in any NHS tender or Evergreen submission.

Because the plan is regenerated in minutes, keeping it current — including moving your target to net zero by 2045 for NHS work — is a task of minutes, not weeks. For the complete NHS content checklist, see Carbon Reduction Plan requirements for NHS suppliers.

Is the NHS Evergreen assessment mandatory?

The assessment itself is a self-assessment that NHS suppliers are increasingly asked to complete, and the NHS is embedding it across its procurement and framework routes (such as NHS Supply Chain). While completing Evergreen may be voluntary on a given tender, the underlying requirement it measures — a published PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan — has applied to all new NHS procurements since April 2024, proportionately (a full CRP for contracts of £5 million a year or more and for frameworks, a lighter Net Zero Commitment below that, with many buyers asking for a full CRP regardless). In practice, suppliers who cannot evidence Level 1 risk being screened out as requirements tighten.

How does Evergreen differ from PPN 006?

PPN 006 defines the Carbon Reduction Plan itself — the document, its content, and the pass/fail selection check. Evergreen is a broader maturity framework the NHS uses to measure a supplier’s overall sustainability journey over time, across several levels. A PPN 006 CRP is the entry requirement (the foundation of Level 1); the higher Evergreen levels then ask for deeper commitments such as validated targets, Scope 3 supplier engagement and public reporting.

What happens if I don't complete it?

You may still be able to bid today if the specific tender does not require Evergreen, but you would be missing the CRP that PPN 006 requires for NHS procurements, and you would fall behind as the NHS raises the bar year on year. From 2027 the NHS expects supplier plans to commit to net zero by 2045, and later stages of the roadmap tie continued eligibility to demonstrable progress. Completing Level 1 now — starting with a published CRP — protects your access to NHS work.

Does my Carbon Reduction Plan need updating for the NHS?

Yes. Every PPN 006 CRP must be refreshed at least annually. For NHS suppliers there is an additional angle: from 2027 the plan is expected to commit to net zero by 2045 (the NHS supply-chain target), rather than only the general 2050 date. CarbonPass regenerates your CRP from updated bill data in minutes and lets you set the target year your buyer requires.