CRN Tech Impact 2022: An insider's view of PPN 06/21

Adept chairman Ian Fishwick gives his views on new government guidance compelling public sector suppliers to decarbonise

Government efforts to force public sector suppliers to commit to decarbonisation "are actually working", the chair of a working group advising policy in this area has told CRN.

Adept chairman Ian Fishwick revealed that some £87bn of contracts have been handed to public sector suppliers that have committed to reaching net zero by 2050 since the PPN 06/21 guidance kicked in at the start of 2022.

PPN 06/21 marks the first time a government anywhere in the world has used the power of public sector spend to force suppliers to commit to cutting their carbon emissions.

Fishwick chairs the SME panel that is looking into the practical implications of PPN 06/21 for suppliers.

"We persuaded the Cabinet Office development team to actually write an automated alert system," he said during a special video interview for CRN Tech Impact.

"The second bit is that we're doing a whole range of case studies to show people how you actually fill these things in. Because there's a danger - certainly at the small business end - that if a consultant knocks on the door and says 'I'll charge thousands of pounds to explain the rules and how to fill out the forms' that people start to say it's just too expensive. So we've got to make sure that this case is around that makes that easy."

Fishwick added:

"And the third bit is the development of key performance indicators. By putting those KPIs in, we can see over 2,000 companies have been trained on carbon reduction plans, and over 1,200 companies have submitted carbon reduction plans. So we can start to see that it's not just a statement with nothing behind it. It's actually working."