Tender Writing and the trick to Catching Carbon

Previous articles have discussed how the success of any PQQ or Tender writing can lie within one particular section of the document, depending on the evaluator’s criteria. This article will focus on the section that I believe is pivotal to submitting a successful tender: Environment and Sustainability. We witness the effects of environmental damage on a daily basis in reports about ice caps melting, the damaging impacts of coral bleaching and so on.

The government aims to counteract these problems through procurement and sustainable development by imposing stringent laws and procedures during the awarding of public sector contracts. Your business could employ a range of initiatives to be compliant, which can then be described and backed up in your tender documents.

What is carbon?

Carbon is emitted into the atmosphere (as carbon dioxide) whenever fossil fuels are burnt. This emission can come from a variety of sources, primarily power stations, commercial property, domestic property, transport, etc. The UK emits more than 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. The quantity emitted has steadily increased since the start of the industrial revolution (1800s) and peaked late in the last century.

What affect does this have on businesses and how can they counteract these problems?

ISO 14001:2004

Worldwide standard ISO 14001:2008 is a management tool that demonstrates your commitment to environmental reduction strategies to the evaluator. Compliance with this standard proves that you are able to

• Identify and control the environmental impact of your activities, products or services

• Improve your environmental performance continually

• Implement a systematic approach to setting environmental objectives and targets, achieving the targets and demonstrate that they have been achieved.

Business effects
Listed below are the ways in which a business can adopt environmentally sustainable practices

• Integrate the consideration of environmental concerns and impacts into all of your decision making and activities.

• Promote environmental awareness amongst your employees and encourage them to work in an environmentally responsible manner.

• Train, educate and inform your employees about environmental issues that may affect their work.

• Reduce waste through re-use and recycling and by purchasing recycled, recyclable or refurbished products and materials where these alternatives are available, economical and suitable.

• Promote efficient use of materials and resources throughout your facility including water, electricity, raw materials and other resources, particularly those that are non-renewable.

• Avoid unnecessary use of hazardous materials and products, seek substitutions when feasible, and take all reasonable steps to protect human health and the environment when such materials must be used, stored and disposed of.

• Purchase and use environmentally responsible products accordingly.
• Communicate your environmental commitment to clients, customers and the public and encourage them to support it.

Reality: carbon capture and storage

The key message to all must be to improve the efficiency of buildings, vehicles, etc. in order to reduce carbon creation. The reality, however, is that the world is experiencing an ever increasing energy demand. A new initiative to run alongside energy management is carbon capture, and the government is currently trying to integrate this into a variety of industries. To control the build-up of carbon in the atmosphere, the proposal is to catch the CO2, and store it in natural storage facilities like exhausted oil and gas fields, such as those in the North Sea. Only time will tell whether initiatives such as these work.


Incorporating these ideas and ways of thinking into your business can dramatically increase your chances of scoring top marks in the environmental sections of your PQQs and Tenders. If you require any further information or a chat about environmental initiatives I’m always available to discuss ways of improving your sustainability.
Luke O’Neill