How does the European Union (EU) voluntary standard for small companies (VSME) want the location of my factory given?
The standard asks for a table with each site's address, postal code, city, country and coordinates. It says coordinates shall be given with five decimal places, and allows free web map tools to find them. VSME is the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group's Voluntary standard for non-listed micro-, small- and medium-sized undertakings.
What the table looks like
- Columns: sites, address, postal code, city, country, coordinates (geolocation).
- Rows: the standard's own examples are a registered office, a warehouse and an industrial plant.
- It covers sites you own, lease or manage, so a rented godown counts.
What the standard says about coordinates
- For a single unit, give a spatial point. For a larger site that is not unit-like, such as a farm, mine or facility, give polygon points that mark the boundary. A cluster of points is also allowed.
- The points shall be given as coordinates with five decimal places.
- You may use web mapping tools, for example Google Maps or Apple Maps, to read off the coordinates. For the perimeter of a large site you may use any suitable software tool.
Why a buyer wants this
The standard says location is expected to be a valuable datapoint for judging risks and opportunities linked to climate change adaptation, water, ecosystems and biodiversity. In plain words: a buyer wants to know if your site sits on a flood plain, in a dry basin, or next to a protected forest.
Five decimal places in practice
The standard's sample, 0 degrees 00 minutes 0.036 seconds, equals 0.00001 degree, so five decimal places means a precision of 0.00001 degree. Decimal degrees such as 19.07600 meet it, and so does degrees-minutes-seconds written to that precision. Our reading: use decimal degrees and say so.
Example: a site table with two rows
- Registered office | 12 Example Road | 000000 | Examplepur | India | 19.07600, 72.87770
- Industrial plant | Plot 4, Example Estate | 000001 | Examplepur | India | 19.10010, 72.90020
Addresses and coordinates are examples for the layout only. Use your own.
What Senseible does here
Senseible fills the energy and emissions disclosure from fuel invoices and electricity bills. This disclosure is not part of it today; it comes from your own registers and papers.
- What is the VSME standard?
- Which company details does B1 ask for?
- What counts as near a protected area?
Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Facts are from the standard's own text, with the paragraph numbers named in the source line. The European Commission adopted its own standard for voluntary use in a Delegated Regulation of 3 July 2026, which is not in force until it is published in the Official Journal and may differ from this text, so ask your buyer which one it means. Our own readings are marked as such.