What is Evergreen ?
The National Health Service (NHS) is embarking on a journey towards sustainability, establishing stringent environmental and emissions objectives that apply not only internally, but also to NHS suppliers. Over the next decade, these green initiatives will progressively strengthen, requiring suppliers aspiring to secure NHS contracts, to align with their environmental goals.
To aid this transition, the NHS has introduced the NHS Evergreen Sustainability Assessment tool, designed to help suppliers understand their sustainability standing and forge a path toward alignment with the NHS's own ambitions.
In other words, the Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment is a self-assessment and reporting tool for suppliers to share sustainability information with the NHS, providing a single route for information and data sharing between suppliers and the NHS.
After completing the assessment, suppliers will receive a sustainability maturity score against NHS priorities, which signposts their current position and pathway to progress.
Benefits of using Evergreen
For suppliers:
Benchmark against current and future NHS priorities – suppliers can see how they align to the NHS’s long-term sustainability priorities.
One conversation with the NHS – Suppliers have a standardised way of communicating their sustainability information to all NHS buyers.
Supports sustainability ambitions – Suppliers can use the assessment to help inform internal planning and decision-making, such as developing business cases for sustainable investment or global target setting.
For NHS organisations:
Improved understanding of supply chain – Provides information that can improve trust/ICB understanding of their supply chain’s progress towards sustainability targets.
One conversation with suppliers – Provides a central source for supplier sustainability information with maturity scoring aligned to the NHS Net Zero and wider sustainability priorities.
Supports contract management – Provides information to inform contract management conversations with suppliers to promote alignment with the NHS sustainability priorities, in particular where emissions reductions form part of key performance indicators (KPIs).
What is the reporting process ?
The assessment can be completed by any supplier which provides or plans to provide goods or services to NHS England, integrated care boards, or an NHS trust in England.
The Department for Health and Social Care and NHS systems in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales can also access the information and data. It is hosted on Atamis (the health family e-commerce procurement system) and all suppliers can access the assessment once they have registered with Atamis.
It is recommended that suppliers complete the assessment annually and the maturity score will be valid for 12 months. However, suppliers will be able to update their annual assessment with significant updates at any time throughout the year, where appropriate.
Evergreen maturity criteria
A supplier will be assessed against four maturity levels that indicate alignment with NHS sustainability priorities.
The maturity criteria are informed by leading, independent sustainability initiatives, such as the science based targets initiative (SBTi) and the modern slavery assessment tool (MSAT), as well as NHS sustainability requirements including those set out in the Net Zero supplier roadmap.
What are the requirements for each maturity level?
The requirements/criteria depend on the maturity level (1 to 4).
Level 1:
Implementation of environmental measures;
Provision of Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a subset of Scope 3 emissions;
Publicly available UK net zero targets, aiming for achievement no later than 2050;
Compliance with any legislative requirements relating to modern slavery statements, the use of modern slavery assessment tools, and the identification of modern slavery risks.
Level 2:
Implementation of environmental measures;
Provision of Scope 1 and 2 emissions and all relevant Scope 3 emissions;
Publicly available UK net zero targets, aiming for achievement no later than 2050;
A public modern slavery statement, and compliance with any legislative requirements concerning the use of modern slavery assessment tools, and the identification of modern slavery risks.
Level 3:
Implementation of environmental measures;
Provision of Scope 1 and 2 emissions and all relevant Scope 3 emissions;
Publicly available global net zero targets, aiming for achievement no later than 2045;
Validation of net zero target and reported emissions by the reporting company;
A public modern slavery statement, the use of modern slavery assessment tools, and compliance with any legislative requirements concerning the identification of modern slavery risks;
A corporate social value programme.
Level 4:
Implementation of environmental measures;
Provision of Scope 1 and 2 emissions and all relevant Scope 3 emissions for both the reporting entity and the global parent entity.
Publicly available global net zero targets, aiming for achievement no later than 2045;
Validation of net zero target and reported emissions by the reporting company and the global parent entity;
Higher performer-transparency reporting;
A public modern slavery statement, the use of modern slavery assessment tools, and the identification of modern slavery risks through the mapping of the company supply chain, or the investigation of incidents and mitigation of high risks;
A corporate social value programme.
Here is a summary table:
The official standard can be found here