Net Zero Planning Grant
Grants of up to AUD 25,000 help NSW businesses with substantial energy bills hire consultants to assess their progress towards net zero and develop practical plans.
Tato příležitost je nyní dostupná v angličtině.
The grant pays up to half of eligible external consultant fees, excluding GST, through two milestones. The first provides up to AUD 2,000 for assessing your business across nine areas: strategy, governance, people and capability, data, targets, net zero action planning, finance, stakeholder engagement and reporting. The second provides up to AUD 23,000 for detailed work such as a greenhouse gas inventory, emissions targets or a net zero action plan.
Your consultant must cover the full scope of at least one key action in the Net Zero Business Guide. Work must follow recognised national or international frameworks, such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol or Science Based Targets Initiative; where no framework exists for the action area, it must align with the Guide. Funding covers activities relating to NSW operations only; activities that intersect with operations elsewhere are excluded.
Consultant fees must reflect prevailing market rates. Internal labour and project management are excluded. Milestone 1 costs paid in full or by deposit before the funding deed is executed are excluded; milestone 2 costs paid before notification that milestone 1 was successfully completed are excluded.
Milestone 2 also excludes capital expenditure, carbon offsets, equipment or technology assessments, work required for mandatory National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting, external training and certification fees, auditing, verification and validation fees, existing ongoing activities, and substantially similar consultant work contracted or started before your grant application.
Payments depend on completing the milestone deliverables and submitting the required reports, evidence and itemised consultant invoices. Incomplete deliverables can reduce payment.
Eligibility
Your business must have an Australian Business Number, be registered for goods and services tax, and have a NSW site address and operations in NSW. Annual energy spending, including all purchased fuels, must be at least AUD 200,000 at one NSW site or AUD 500,000 across multiple NSW sites and operations. Provide your latest energy bills, no more than two years old at application, to prove the threshold.
You cannot apply if:
- You or a related entity has received, or will receive, this grant in the current or any previous round. Related entities include related companies and trusts where you or a related company is a trustee or beneficiary.
- You have received, or will receive, NSW Government funding for the same activities.
- You are a Commonwealth, state or local government entity.
- You are a facility covered by the Australian Government’s Safeguard Mechanism, which sets emissions limits for large industrial facilities.
- You or a related entity is a Group 1 entity required to prepare a sustainability report under section 292A of the Corporations Act.
Group 1 is the first cohort of mandatory climate reporting entities. It includes entities required to produce annual financial reports under Chapter 2M that meet at least two consolidated size tests: at least AUD 500 million revenue, at least AUD 1 billion gross assets or at least 500 employees. The same annual financial-reporting requirement also applies to the other Group 1 route: corporations registered, or required to register, under National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting whose group meets a section 13(1)(a) threshold. That means annual group emissions of at least 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, counting direct emissions (scope 1) and emissions from the electricity used by your facilities (scope 2), or annual energy production of at least 200 terajoules, or annual energy consumption of at least 200 terajoules. Registered schemes, registrable superannuation entities and retail corporate collective investment vehicles are excluded from this cohort. Check your business and related entities against ASIC’s Group 1 criteria.
Trust applicants must show authority to apply and enter and comply with the funding deed, potentially through their trust deed. Your application must demonstrate commitment to net zero, provide accurate information, and present no unacceptable reputational or delivery risks, including inadequate financial capacity.
Other external funding is permitted provided it and this grant together do not exceed the funded activities’ full cost. The sample deed requires prior written notice before receiving further project funding, except debt finance.
The sample deed requires at least AUD 10 million public liability insurance, workers’ compensation insurance required by law, and any additional insurance specified in the issued deed.
How to apply
- Stav
- uzavírá se 30. 11. 2026
- Otevírá se
- Uzavírá se
- Podmínky daného kola žádostí
- Applications close earlier if funding is exhausted.
Read the Round 2 guidelines and sample funding deed on the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s grant page. Use “Apply now” to complete and submit the online form with supporting documents. Applications are currently open and assessed as received; funding can run out before the closing date.
If the assessment team requests more information, respond within five business days or your application will not proceed. Successful applicants must sign and return the deed within 20 business days of it being sent; it becomes binding only after the Department signs it.
Engage external specialist consultants for both milestones. Declare any conflict of interest between your business and a consultant to the Department in writing as soon as possible. Complete milestone 1 within six weeks of the deed’s commencement date. Your consultant must assess all nine Guide areas using the planning tool, invite a Department representative to the engagement session, and prepare the milestone 1 report specifying the detailed work for milestone 2. Submit this report and the itemised invoice through the grant management system.
Complete milestone 2 within 18 weeks of notification that milestone 1 was successfully completed. Your consultant delivers the agreed actions and reassesses the relevant areas using the planning tool. Submit the final report, action deliverables, supporting evidence and itemised invoice. A progress report may be requested at week eight. Complete the pre-implementation survey after the deed is executed and before starting milestone 1, and the post-implementation survey before project completion.
Request project changes through the grant management system with justification and evidence; approval must be written and is reserved for exceptional circumstances. Notify the Department of delays or scope changes as soon as reasonably possible and at least two weeks before the milestone due date. Approved funding amounts cannot be increased.
Under the sample deed, provide requested project information within five business days. Provide evidence of grant income and expenditure within 60 business days after completing an activity or terminating the deed, whichever is earlier, and after each financial year in which funding was provided. Keep complete project records for at least seven years after deed expiry or termination and assist with audits.
The sample deed requires repayment of all funding if you or a related entity is required, as a Group 1 entity, to submit a sustainability report for the immediately past or current financial year. It also requires repayment within 28 days of demand of amounts spent contrary to the deed, unspent amounts, overpayments and other amounts repayable under the deed, including interest on amounts to be repaid.
The grant amounts are exclusive of GST. Under the sample deed, the Department pays an additional GST amount only where GST applies to your supply under the deed and the Department can claim an input tax credit; excess GST payments must be repaid.