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Are you ready to answer a VSME sustainability request?

EU companies ask their suppliers for sustainability data, more and more in the VSME format: the EU's voluntary reporting standard for small and medium-sized companies. Go through the Basic Module, disclosures B1 to B11, and see which datapoints you already have and what to collect.

B1 · Basis for preparation

Whether the report covers the company alone or with its subsidiaries (and their addresses)
Legal form and NACE sector code(s)
Balance sheet total and turnover for the year
Number of employees (headcount or full-time equivalent)
Country of main operations, and the location (geolocation) of each siteRecorded in the CBAM Evidence Pack for each plant.
Sustainability certifications or labels held: issuer, date, ratingOnly if you hold any.

B2 · Practices, policies and future initiatives

Whether you have practices, policies, future initiatives and targets for sustainability (for example to cut energy or emissions)

B3 · Energy and greenhouse gas emissions

Electricity bought in the year, from the grid or any other supplier, in MWh (from your bills)
Fuels used in the year (quantities by fuel)Recorded in the CBAM Evidence Pack for each plant.
Which part of the energy is renewable, including any solar or wind power you generate and use
Scope 1 emissions in t CO2e (fuels and processes on site)Recorded in the CBAM Evidence Pack for each plant.
Grid emission factor for the location-based Scope 2 (for India: the CEA CO2 Baseline Database)
Turnover, to work out emissions per unit of turnover

B4 · Pollution of air, water and soil

Pollutants emitted to air, water and soil, with amountsOnly if you already report them to an authority or under an environmental management system.

B5 · Biodiversity

Number and area of your sites in or near a biodiversity-sensitive area

B6 · Water

Total water withdrawal, and how much at sites in areas of high water stress
Water consumption (withdrawal minus discharge)Only if your processes use a lot of water.

B7 · Resource use, circular economy and waste

Whether and how you apply circular economy principles
Waste generated in the year, hazardous and non-hazardous, and how much went to recycling or reuse
Mass of the main materials usedOnly if your sector uses significant material flows (metals usually do).Recorded in the CBAM Evidence Pack for each plant.

B8 · Workforce: general characteristics

Employees by type of contract (temporary or permanent), by gender, and by country if in more than one
Employee turnover rateOnly if you have 50 or more employees.

B9 · Workforce: health and safety

Number and rate of recordable work accidents, and fatalities

B10 · Workforce: pay, collective bargaining and training

Whether all employees are paid at least the applicable minimum wage
Gender pay gap in %May be left out below 150 employees.
Share of employees covered by collective bargaining agreements
Average training hours per employee, by gender

B11 · Convictions and fines for corruption and bribery

Number of convictions and total finesOnly if there were any in the year.

What VSME is

The VSME is a voluntary standard the European Commission recommended on 30 July 2025 for small and medium-sized companies that are not listed. Large EU companies that must report on their value chain often ask suppliers to answer in this format instead of sending their own questionnaires. The Basic Module has 11 disclosures; each item is answered only where it applies to your company.

Energy and emissions (B3)

B3 asks for the energy you used in MWh, split into renewable and non-renewable, and your greenhouse gas emissions in tonnes of CO2 equivalent: Scope 1 (fuels and processes on your sites) and location-based Scope 2 (bought electricity times your grid's emission factor), worked out with the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard. If you prepare CBAM data, you already have the fuel and electricity quantities this needs.

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Datapoints from Commission Recommendation (EU) 2025/1710 of 30 July 2025, Annex, Basic Module, in shortened wording. A checklist, not legal advice; see the disclaimer.