We present a combination of the polarizable embedding (PE) scheme with the complex polarization propagator (CPP) method with the aim of calculating response properties including relaxation for large and complex systems. This new approach, termed PE-CPP, will benefit from the highly advanced description of the environmental electrostatic potential and polarization in the PE method as well as the treatment of near-resonant effects in the CPP approach. The PE-CPP model has been implemented in a Kohn-Sham density functional theory approach, and we present pilot calculations exemplifying the implementation for the UV/vis and carbon K-edge X-ray absorption spectra of the protein plastocyanin. Furthermore, technical details associated with a PE-CPP calculation are discussed.