VSME explained: the EU's voluntary sustainability reporting standard for SMEs
VSME is the voluntary sustainability reporting standard for non-listed small and medium-sized companies, developed by EFRAG and recommended by the European Commission on 30 July 2025. It exists so that an SME can answer the sustainability questions of large customers, banks and investors with one standard set of disclosures instead of one questionnaire each.
What VSME is
- Voluntary. Nobody is legally required to use it.
- Two modules. A Basic module covers general information and core environmental, social and governance metrics, including energy and greenhouse-gas emissions. A Comprehensive module builds on it with additional datapoints that banks, investors and corporate clients are likely to ask for.
- Aimed at non-listed SMEs, including very small companies.
- Meant to limit questionnaires. The Commission's stated aim is that large companies asking SMEs for sustainability data should ask for what VSME covers, rather than send a different questionnaire each.
The Commission's overview is on its corporate sustainability reporting page.
Why VSME reaches suppliers in the Western Balkans
Your EU customers that report under CSRD need data from their value chain, and VSME is the format the Commission points them towards for smaller suppliers. A buyer may ask for it by name, or ask for the numbers it contains. Nothing stops a supplier outside the EU from using it, and whether a given customer accepts it is that customer's decision, so ask.
The emissions part of VSME
Energy and greenhouse-gas emissions are part of the Basic module, and they are the part that needs a calculation rather than a form. That is what a GHG inventory is for: Scope 1 and Scope 2 built from invoices and records, with a stated boundary.
Karbon360 does not prepare a VSME report. It produces the inventory that the environmental disclosures draw on: Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 categories 6 and 7, each traced to its source document. The social and governance disclosures are outside what the product does.
What to do now
- Ask your customers and your bank whether they accept VSME, and which module they expect.
- Build your GHG inventory from your invoices. The GHG inventory checklist lists what to collect.
- Keep the evidence. A traced figure answers the question once, in whichever format it is asked.
Keep reading
- GHG inventory checklist — what to collect and check
- Supplier questionnaires — answering a customer request
- How to use Karbon360 — build the inventory step by step