11/08/2025
Have you heard of the new VSME ESG reporting standard?
The EU's development of sustainability disclosure standards has been an evolving process since the concept of ESG appeared towards the end of the last century. However, the rate and extent of these updates has ramped up in the past couple of years:
🌲European commission tasked EFRAG, under the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) framework, to draft the ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards).
🌲ESRS, which was adopted at the end of July 2023, is an update on the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative).
🌲Then the EU commission decided to develop another set of voluntary standards for SMEs, VSME, which was adopted in December 2024.
The VSME is a "lite" version of the mandatory framework aimed at companies that are not required to disclose but would like to anyway. This includes entities that are not public and/or headquartered outside of the EU, as well as falling below a certain threshold of turnover, headcount, and revenue. It has 2 modules: Basic and Comprehensive. The Basic Module is designed for micro entities and is a minimum requirement for other SMEs. The Comprehensive Module has to include the Basic part and encompasses a much larger set of datapoints. This module provides information that is likely to be requested by the entity's financial partners and corporate clients.
I am now working on two VSME reports for a client that is headquartered in Israel with subsidiaries in Europe. One is a consolidated report that will include data from the Basic Module. The second one will focus on the largest company in the group and will include the Comprehensive section as well.
I would be happy to speak to other professionals using the VSME standard to compare notes and share insights.
🙋♀️Please feel free to reach out .
