EDGE sustainability strategy: choose Option A, B or C

EDGE sustainability strategy support offers three different project outcomes. Option A covers strategy development. Option B adds a sustainability report. Option C adds assurance of that report. The choice should follow the company’s reporting history, mandatory climate-reporting status and ability to maintain the resulting data and governance, not a preference for the largest supplier package.

Check whether the activity is available

The current activity page says the company must not have previously developed or published a sustainability report and must not already be subject to mandatory ISSB-based climate-related disclosures. Verify both facts before requesting proposals. A first report prepared privately can still affect the first condition even if marketing never published it.

Record the company, group, listing status, revenue, assets, reporting history and source date. Companies subject to mandatory reporting may need the separate Sustainability Reporting Grant route. Do not use EDGE to subsidise a deliverable that the activity expressly excludes.

Understand the EDGE sustainability strategy core

All three options start with materiality, a data-collection system, gap assessment, risk and opportunity assessment, and a strategy or roadmap. These are not independent menu items. The official EDGE activity page requires all areas under the selected option to be completed in full.

Name internal owners for environmental, social and governance data before engaging a consultant. A report assembled entirely outside the business can leave management unable to explain, refresh or use its own strategy.

Choose Option A for a usable strategy

Option A can fit a company that needs to identify material topics, establish data ownership and decide what to do before producing a public report. Define decisions the strategy must support, such as customer requirements, tender readiness, resource priorities or governance.

Require a practical roadmap with owners, baselines, targets, dependencies and review dates. Avoid a generic ESG catalogue. The deliverable should show which risks and opportunities matter to this company and what management will do next.

Choose Option B when reporting is ready

Option B adds a sustainability report aligned with an international framework such as GRI or IFRS. Select it only when the company can substantiate claims, approve the reporting boundary and maintain the data. A first report creates an external record that future updates must reconcile.

Agree the framework, reporting period, entities, material topics, metrics and review process in the proposal. Keep marketing review separate from factual approval. The report should not claim targets, reductions or assurance that the underlying records do not support.

Choose Option C for justified assurance

Option C adds assurance of the sustainability report. Identify who needs assurance, what scope and level are intended, which criteria will be used and whether the evidence can withstand independent testing. Assurance should respond to a decision need, not merely add a logo.

Protect independence between preparation and assurance. Clarify provider roles, data access, management representations and remediation of findings. If the company cannot establish reliable source records, fix the system before promising an assured report.

Prepare the required application evidence

The official page asks for the vendor proposal and quotation, SS 680 certification, and one-year projections for revenue growth, cost savings and qualifying job creation, with carbon data where applicable. Trace every projection to an assumption, owner and source.

Do not fabricate benefits to make the project look stronger. Where an outcome is uncertain, show the method and range used for internal approval. Retain the original values so later results can be compared honestly.

Control commitment and delivery

Do not start work or make a payment or deposit before application submission. After approval, freeze the Letter of Offer, option and deliverables. Current activity guidance limits change requests to the project end date and claim due date, so an option or scope shift cannot be treated as an informal extension.

Use the EDGE change-request boundary guide for later issues. Set acceptance criteria for the strategy, data template, report and assurance output before final payment.

Connect the work to continuing governance

Assign each metric to a system and owner, schedule management review and record how targets influence budgets or operations. A one-off report without operating ownership provides little resilience after the funded project ends.

The Sustainability Reporting Grant guide explains the mandatory-reporting route, while the enterprise support and sustainability hub connects resource and energy projects. Preserve one canonical explanation for each programme rather than blending their eligibility rules.

Score readiness before choosing the option

Use a simple internal readiness review across data ownership, reporting boundary, management approval, source records, target governance and stakeholder need. A company with fragmented data and no reporting owner may obtain more value from Option A than from rushing to an external report. Record the evidence behind the choice instead of assigning an unexplained score.

For Option B, identify the audience and decisions the report must serve. Test whether each proposed metric can be reproduced from source records and whether the narrative distinguishes achieved results from future goals. For Option C, add assurance scope, criteria, independence and remediation capacity. If these elements are not settled, the higher option can increase cost without increasing credible information.

Revisit the selected option only before submission or through an official route supported by the programme. Do not allow a supplier to upsell another deliverable after approval on the assumption that the grant will absorb it. Keep unfunded enhancements separate, approve them commercially and make sure they do not confuse the supported claim evidence.

Choose the EDGE sustainability strategy Option A, B or C from the company’s real reporting position and decision need. Settle eligibility first, then fund a strategy and evidence system the business can continue to operate after the consultant leaves.