Fixed-price deliverable
Your VSME report, built from the data you already have
A bank's credit questionnaire, a corporate customer's supplier form, an insurer's data request: they all want ESG data from companies that were never in scope of the reporting laws. VSME is the EU-endorsed standard written for exactly that situation. We fill it in from your utility bills, payroll and records, and answer once instead of per questionnaire.
- The standard
- VSME, the voluntary sustainability reporting standard for non-listed SMEs, published by EFRAG on 17 December 2024
- EU status
- Endorsed by Commission Recommendation (EU) 2025/1710 of 30 July 2025 as the standard for SME sustainability data
- Who asks
- Banks, insurers and large corporate customers passing their own reporting duties down the value chain
- Why VSME answers them
- EU rules now cap what companies in scope of sustainability reporting may ask value-chain partners with fewer than 1,000 employees at VSME-level information
- What you buy
- The Basic module, disclosures B1 to B11, filled in with an evidence trail per datapoint and a gap list
The ask
Large companies and financial institutions carry sustainability reporting duties of their own, and they discharge part of them by asking their suppliers and borrowers for data. If you are an SME, that is how ESG reporting reaches you: not as a law aimed at you, but as a questionnaire from a bank or a large customer that you cannot commercially ignore.
The EU’s answer to that trickle-down is VSME, the voluntary sustainability reporting standard for non-listed SMEs, developed by EFRAG and published in December 2024. In July 2025 the European Commission formally recommended it, asking large companies and financial institutions to limit what they request from SME partners to what VSME contains. The 2026 Omnibus changes went further: companies in scope of EU sustainability reporting may no longer demand more than VSME-level information from value-chain partners with fewer than 1,000 employees. One properly built VSME report is therefore designed to answer most of these requests at once.
Who this applies to
Non-listed SMEs and mid-market companies that are not themselves in scope of EU sustainability reporting law. After the 2026 Omnibus changes, mandatory reporting only reaches large undertakings with more than 1,000 employees and over EUR 450 million turnover. If that is not you, nobody can oblige you to publish a sustainability report; but your bank, your insurer and your largest customers can keep asking, and they do.
This deliverable fits you if those requests are landing and you want one document, in the EU’s own format, that answers them. It is precise about its own limits: VSME is the ceiling of what such counterparts should ask of you, which is exactly what makes it worth having.
What you need to have ready
This list doubles as our intake. Several VSME disclosures only apply in specific circumstances, so for many companies the final report is shorter than the standard suggests. Whatever is missing becomes the gap list.
- Electricity and gas bills for the reporting year, plus fuel purchases for vehicles and heating
- A site list: your locations and what happens at each
- HR roster data: headcount by contract type, gender and country, plus leavers during the year
- Payroll data points: coverage of collective bargaining, pay relative to minimum wage, and data for the gender pay gap
- Your accident log: recordable work-related incidents for the year
- Training hours per employee, if tracked
- Waste records and water bills, where relevant to your operations
- Any existing policies, certificates or prior sustainability statements
What Humboldt delivers
The Basic module of VSME, disclosures B1 through B11, filled in and delivered in EFRAG’s official digital template so a bank or corporate customer can take it in directly. Energy use is compiled in MWh from your bills, Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions are calculated per the GHG Protocol, workforce and governance datapoints come from your own records, and every number carries an evidence trail back to its source document.
Missing data does not stop the report. Where your records leave a defensible route to a number, emissions derived from spend, fuel from mileage, we estimate it and mark it clearly as an estimate with the method used; VSME itself accepts estimated figures as long as they are labelled as such. And where the report reveals a missing basic, a code of conduct, an environmental policy, we include a ready-to-adapt template so you can close the gap by tailoring, not by hiring a consultant.
We still never fill a gap with a guess: a datapoint that cannot be evidenced or defensibly estimated goes on the gap list with a note on what to start collecting so next year’s report is complete. A senior specialist reviews the whole report and signs off before it reaches you.
The price
Fixed scope, fixed price
Completed VSME report (Basic module)
from EUR 2,900 per report, Basic module
You buy the finished deliverable, not hours and not software. We confirm the exact scope and price on a 20-minute call before any work starts, and the price we quote is the price you pay.
What the price includes
- All eleven Basic module disclosures (B1 to B11) prepared from your records, including energy and Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, workforce, and governance datapoints
- Delivery in EFRAG's official VSME digital template, so banks and customers can process it directly
- An evidence trail per datapoint: every number traces to a bill, a payroll extract or a record you gave us
- Estimates wherever your records leave a defensible route to a number, for example emissions derived from spend or mileage, clearly marked as estimates and calculated per the GHG Protocol where emissions are concerned
- Ready-to-adapt templates for basics the report shows you are missing, such as a code of conduct or an environmental policy, so closing a gap is an afternoon of tailoring, not a consulting project
- A gap list of datapoints that cannot be evidenced or defensibly estimated, with what to collect for next year
- Review and sign-off by a senior specialist before delivery
Turnaround: 15 working days from receiving your documents.
So we are clear about the boundaries
- VSME is voluntary. We will not tell you it is legally required, because it is not. It is the EU-endorsed way to answer the requests you are already getting, once instead of per questionnaire.
- The base price covers the Basic module. The Comprehensive module (C1 to C9), which some banks and investors ask for on top, is quoted separately before we start.
- We prepare the report; we do not audit or assure it. If a counterpart requires assurance, that is a separate engagement with an assurance provider.
- We never invent a number. Where a datapoint can be soundly estimated we estimate it and mark it as such; what cannot be evidenced or defensibly estimated goes on the gap list, not into the report.
No commitment. We'll tell you on the call whether we can hit your deadline.
Every deliverable builds your evidence ledger, so the next answer is faster.
Primary sources
Where these facts come from
The regulation and scheme facts on this page are taken from the official sources below, checked on 7 August 2026. If you spot something outdated, tell us and we will fix it.