Your Carbon Reduction Plan Expires Every Year — Here’s Why Annual Reviews Matter

Your CRP Has a Shelf Life

Many businesses treat their carbon reduction plan like a health and safety certificate — get it once, file it away, forget about it. This is a mistake. PPN 006 explicitly requires that carbon reduction plans are reviewed and updated annually. A plan dated 2024 being submitted in a 2026 tender is a red flag to procurement evaluators.

An outdated CRP tells evaluators one of two things: either you do not take your environmental commitments seriously, or you are not on top of your compliance obligations. Neither is a good look when you are competing for a contract.

What an Annual Review Should Include

An effective annual review is not a complete rewrite. It is a focused update that demonstrates progress:

• Updated emissions data — recalculate your footprint using the most recent reporting period’s activity data and the latest DEFRA emission factors
• Year-on-year comparison — show how your emissions have changed since your baseline year. Are they going up or down? Why?
• Progress on reduction measures — which actions from your plan have you implemented? What impact have they had?
• Updated targets — if circumstances have changed (growth, acquisitions, office moves), adjust your targets accordingly
• New reduction measures — add any new actions you plan to take in the coming year

The Procurement Risk of a Stale Plan

Procurement evaluators are trained to spot outdated plans. Common red flags include:

• A reporting period that ended more than 18 months ago
• Emission factors from a previous year (e.g., DEFRA 2022 factors in a 2026 tender)
• No year-on-year comparison or progress reporting
• Reduction targets with dates that have already passed without reported outcomes

In competitive tenders, evaluators score plans on quality and credibility. A stale plan will score lower than a current one, even if the underlying emissions data is similar. The update itself demonstrates that you are actively managing your carbon footprint, not just ticking a box.

When to Do Your Annual Review

The best time to update your CRP is shortly after your financial year ends, once you have the previous year’s activity data (energy bills, travel records, waste reports). Most businesses align their CRP reporting period with their financial year for simplicity.

If you completed your first CRP in early 2025, your first annual review should be completed by early 2026 at the latest. Do not leave it until you are midway through a tender — the pressure of a deadline combined with missing data leads to rushed, low-quality updates.

The £199 Refresh

Updating a carbon reduction plan should not cost anywhere near as much as creating the first one. With Carbonhogs, annual refreshes are £199. You update your questionnaire answers with the latest year’s data, and we regenerate your plan with updated calculations, year-on-year comparisons, and revised targets. Same quality, fraction of the cost, and your plan stays current for the next 12 months.