Your customer sent an ESG questionnaire.
You probably don't have to do CSRD.
There is a standard built for exactly your position — smaller than the full ESRS set, and designed to be proportionate. Most of what it asks for is already in records you keep.
Being asked is not the same as being in scope
Why the questionnaire arrived
Your customer is inside CSRD scope, or answering its own bank or investor. To complete that, they need data from their value chain — which means you. The request is a consequence of their obligation, not the creation of a new one for you.
Why you are probably outside it
CSRD applies to larger undertakings and listed companies above defined thresholds, and that scope has been narrowed since it was introduced. Most small and mid-sized non-listed suppliers sit outside it. The thresholds have moved more than once — confirm your own position before relying on it, and do not take a customer's questionnaire as evidence that you are in scope.
So the goal is not to become a reporting company. It is to be an easy supplier to keep buying from — and VSME is how you do that without taking on an ESRS project.
The whole thing is about ten disclosures
This is the mapping EcoMetrics scores against, with the data each disclosure needs and where that data usually already lives.
| Code | Disclosure | Where the data usually is |
|---|---|---|
| B1–B2 | Basis for preparation; policies and practices | Existing policy documents |
| B3a | Energy consumption and mix (MWh) | Electricity and fuel invoices |
| B3b | GHG emissions, Scope 1 and 2 (tCO₂e) | Calculated from energy and fuel use |
| B4 | Pollution of air, water and soil | Environmental permits and monitoring |
| B6 | Water withdrawal and consumption (m³) | Water utility invoices |
| B7 | Waste generation and recycling | Waste collection notes |
| B8 | Workforce characteristics (headcount, gender) | Payroll or HR export |
| B9 | Health and safety (work-related accidents) | Incident log |
| B10 | Training and turnover | HR records |
| B11 | Business conduct, including anti-corruption | Policies and training records |
Six of the ten come straight off invoices and utility bills. That is the point of VSME: the bar is proportionate to a company that does not have a sustainability department.
Upload what you have. See what it already answers.
Upload the files as they are
Utility ledgers, fuel logs, payroll exports — the workbooks you already keep, in whatever shape they are in. Each sheet's structure is inferred before anything is aggregated, and units it is unsure about are flagged rather than guessed.
See the gaps as a checklist
Each VSME disclosure shows as evidenced, partial or missing — not a bare percentage. A gap becomes a task with an owner and a date, so the remaining work is a list rather than a feeling.
Send something defensible
A branded PDF your customer can file, with the figures traceable back to the documents they came from. If they ask where a number came from, you can show them.
What this is, precisely
EcoMetrics produces an indicative mapping to the VSME Basic Module. It shows which disclosures your data can already evidence. It is not an official VSME report, and it is not assurance. We would rather say that plainly here than have you discover it after sending something to a customer.
One dataset, whichever framework they want
Customers rarely agree on a format. The same uploaded data is scored against each of these, so a second questionnaire is not a second project.
- VSME — the proportionate standard for non-listed SMEs
- CSRD / ESRS — if you are in scope, or growing into it
- GRI — the global reporting standard
- EcoVadis — evidence areas an assessment expects
- ISO 14001 — environmental management
- CBAM — if you export steel, aluminium, cement or fertiliser into the EU
Send us the questionnaire
Forward the questionnaire your customer sent, and we will tell you which parts you can already answer from records you keep, which need a little work, and which genuinely do not apply to a company your size.
If the honest answer is that you can fill it in yourself in an afternoon without buying anything, we will say so.
What suppliers actually ask
Do I legally have to answer this questionnaire?
Usually not legally — commercially, yes. It is rarely a regulator asking. It is a customer deciding how easy you are to keep buying from, or a bank pricing a loan. That is a stronger reason to answer well than a law would be.
Is VSME mandatory?
No. It is a voluntary standard — the V is for voluntary. Its value is that it is recognised, proportionate and widely accepted by customers inside CSRD scope, so answering it well tends to end the conversation rather than start a longer one.
We have no sustainability staff. Is this realistic?
It is designed for exactly that situation. Six of the ten Basic Module disclosures come off invoices and utility bills. The usual blockers are the workforce and business-conduct items, which need someone to write down what you already do.
Our diversity data is sensitive. How is that handled?
Properly, because it has to be. Diversity reporting can touch GDPR Article 9 special-category data, which is a different legal regime from your electricity bills. EcoMetrics keeps it in separate tables with their own encryption keys and row-level security, rather than alongside ordinary metrics. More on the security design.
What if we are asked again next year, in a different format?
The same dataset is scored against VSME, ESRS, GRI, EcoVadis and ISO 14001. The second questionnaire is a different view of data you have already uploaded, not a second project.
Be the supplier who already has the answer
The questionnaire is a procurement decision wearing a sustainability costume. Answering it well is commercial work, and it is less work than it looks.