Your EU customer wants a VSME report. Start here.

VSME is a short sustainability report for small companies. Tick what you already hold and the folder fills.

VSME is the Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for non-listed small and medium-sized enterprises, written by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). It is a short sustainability report for small companies. No Indian company has to use it. But EU customers point small suppliers to it, and one VSME report can answer most EU questionnaires if several buyers send you their own. Its first part is the Basic Module: eleven numbered parts, B1 to B11, such as B3 for energy.

Fill these from bills and registers

Your bills and registers already hold these figures.

• B3 Energy and greenhouse gas emissions: Four figures: total energy in megawatt hours (MWh), Scope 1 emissions, Scope 2 emissions (both in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) and emissions per unit of turnover. Scope 1 is fuel you burn yourself, like the petrol in your own scooter. Scope 2 is the electricity you buy, like the bill at home. Take it from: electricity bills and fuel invoices.
• B6 Water: How much water you use. Usually from: water bills or meter readings.
• B7 Waste: What leaves your site as waste. Usually from: disposal invoices and scrap sale bills.
• B8 Workforce: How many people work for you. Usually from: your payroll register.
• B9 Health and safety: Injuries and accidents. Usually from: your accident register.
• B10 Pay: What you pay your people. Usually from: your payroll register.

Write these once

No bill needed. Reuse your words for every customer.

• B1 Basis of preparation: Which sites and which year the report covers, and which module you use. You decide this once.
• B2 Practices and policies: What you already do on energy, people and conduct, written in a few lines.
• B11 Governance: Whether the company has had a corruption conviction. A plain statement you can confirm.

These need other data

If a point does not apply, say so in a short note.

• B4 Pollution: Releases to air, water and soil. Needs: test reports or papers from the pollution control board. If it does not apply, say so. If it applies but is not measured, say that.
• B5 Biodiversity: Where your sites sit and how the land is used. Needs: your site locations and land details.

The descriptions above are our short summary of the standard, not its wording. Where each figure comes from is our reading of where a small factory usually finds it. The standard itself sets the exact points.

If the buyer asks for more

The Basic Module does not ask for Scope 3, the emissions behind what you buy and ship. A buyer may still ask for it.

Under the EU's corporate sustainability reporting rules (CSRD), a large company should not require a supplier with 1,000 staff or fewer to report beyond this voluntary standard, and you can decline extra asks that go beyond it. A buyer can still make extra data a condition of its contract.

So offer the VSME report, and say politely what goes beyond it. If a buyer has its own portal, fill the portal and keep the VSME report as your master copy. Check the final published text of the standard before you rely on any detail here.

Upload one bill for B3 or answer a buyer carbon questionnaire