VSME reporting for SMEs: finally documenting sustainability easily.

The VSME standard is a voluntary European standard for sustainability reporting, developed specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It makes it possible to document the most important ESG topics in a structured, comprehensible and standardized format - without having to map the full complexity of ESR.

The VSME is intended precisely as a practical reporting format so that SMEs can respond efficiently to ESG inquiries from customers, banks and partners - especially if they themselves fall under the CSRD/ESRS reporting obligations. The standard is compatible with ESRS, but is feasible for SMEs.

No. VSME reporting is legally voluntary.

In practice, however, market pressure is increasing: large customers, corporations and banks require ESG information - partly because they themselves have to report in accordance with CSRD/ESRS or make ESG risks in the supply chain transparent.

For many SMEs, the VSME thus becomes the pragmatic standard for handling inquiries quickly, comparably and professionally.

ZERvVia has been deliberately developed for SMEs - with a focus on the VSME standard instead of a multitude of complex reporting frameworks. This keeps the solution lean, easy to understand and quick to implement: with specific help for each data field, clear guidance and without unnecessary overload.

At the same time, ZEROvia goes beyond pure reporting: your information is used to create an ESG profile as a shareable website that you can easily share with customers, banks or partners (e.g. at https://zerovia.app/profiles/ihr-firmen-name). Relevant evidence such as certificates can also be presented there in a structured manner.

And if you wish, ZEROvia can provide you with further modular support: we use VSME reporting to derive specific measures to improve your sustainability performance - for example, to reduce energy, water or waste costs. This turns reporting into a pragmatic program with real business benefits.

ZEROvia guides you step by step through the report - including information on where you can typically find the required data and how to document it appropriately. Many details can be reused so that follow-up reports require significantly less effort than the first report.

An ESG profile based on our ESQ Quick Check is created in half an hour. Based on the ESQ Assessment within 2-3 hours. The time required for the VSME report (Basic and Comprehensive) depends heavily on the data available (e.g. your electricity bills with consumption data). With good preparation, it can be completed in just a few hours.

Yes, you can create a complete VSME report for your reporting year in ZEROvia, which you can use internally or share with relevant stakeholders (as a PDF document or in XBRL format). In addition, you can publish an ESG profile as a shareable link - as a compact, comprehensible presentation of your most important ESG information.

With ZEROvia, sustainability reporting becomes the basis for better decisions: You create transparency on relevant ESG issues, answer customer and bank requests faster and reduce manual effort through structured data collection and reuse.

On request, ZEROvia can also help you to derive specific fields of action and measures from your data - so that sustainability does not end with documentation, but is reflected in improvements in the company and the organization.

Not necessarily - the opposite is often the case. Many sustainability measures act like an efficiency program: less energy consumption, less waste, less use of materials and better processes. This can lower costs, reduce risks and increase competitiveness.

The VSME report creates the necessary structure and transparency. ZEROvia helps you to derive pragmatic next steps from this - with a focus on feasibility and measurable benefits.

For many companies, 70-90 % of greenhouse gas emissions are generated in the upstream and downstream supply chain. It is therefore also crucial for SMEs to integrate suppliers into their own sustainability program and increasingly take ESG criteria into account in procurement and supplier selection.

This is precisely why ZEROvia is developing supplementary modules for supplier management and sustainable procurement - so that ESG does not remain isolated, but is integrated into key business processes.

Yes, the VSME report is created for a reporting year / financial year - similar to annual financial statements. In ZEROvia, you can mark a report as final at a point in time so that it is clearly documented which version is „submitted“ or officially completed. If necessary, you can build on this in the following year and continue working with a new version

ZEROvia is primarily aimed at SMEs that are not subject to CSRD reporting requirements and require a simple, affordable and practical reporting format. This is precisely where the advantage lies - also for large companies, banks and insurers.

This is because many larger organizations want to improve ESG transparency in their supply chain. Often, the current view of suppliers is already based on external ratings and general risk indicators (e.g. industry, country or reputational risks). However, if more robust and comparable supplier data is required, data collection quickly becomes time-consuming in practice.

ZEROvia enables a pragmatic approach here: major customers or financial institutions can initiate structured ESG data collection („campaigns“) together with their suppliers and recommend VSME reporting in ZEROvia to their SME suppliers as a simple, connectable format. This creates additional transparency - without overburdening suppliers with complex systems or frameworks.