Tech support for the dev. of the PCF requirements of the NHS Supplier Roadmap

In 2021, the NHS Public Board approved a roadmap to drive supplier decarbonisation and support the achievement of the NHS Net Zero target. The 2028 milestone of this roadmap outlines new requirements to be introduced overseeing the provision of carbon footprints for individual products supplied to the NHS. The 2025 Five years of a greener NHS progress report refined the scope of this milestone to high-emission areas, particularly pharmaceuticals, medical technologies, and digital where more granular carbon insights can deliver value on the NHS’s journey to net zero.

There isn’t currently a single methodology to measure product level emissions, and further work is required to define the technical approach that will deliver the expected benefits of this policy. This procurement exercise outlines the need to commission a third party with expertise and experience in Product Carbon Footprinting (PCF) in the health sector to support, by the end of Q4 26/27, the selection, tailoring and testing of the technical PCF requirement of the 2028 milestone. This includes working with a technical reference group (TRG) with experts in Footprinting to identify existing methods and standards, assessing their alignment against the NHS policy intentions, recommending options and how they could be practically applied in the identified areas, and testing them with suppliers, using real data, and reporting learnings from the process.

Enabling the collection of granular data for high-emission areas is key to assisting NHS England (NHSE) to demonstrate regard to the need to contribute towards compliance with its statutory climate change duties (Climate Change Act 2008 and Environment Act 2021). This project will support understanding of key products’ emissions, allowing the NHSE team and local stakeholders to prioritise actions to tackle supply chain emissions, as well as identifying opportunities for UK innovation and growth, improving health products value and supply resilience.