VSME Report Example: A Complete Sample Walkthrough
Guides to the VSME standard describe the eleven Basic Module disclosures in the abstract; what most people preparing their first report want is simpler: show me what a finished one looks like. This page does that, disclosure by disclosure, using a worked example.
Our sample company is fictional: a 45-employee metal-machining firm in northern Italy with €6.2 million turnover, one production site, and no sustainability team. Every figure below is invented for illustration, but each is the kind of number a real firm of that shape would report, with a note on where it comes from. A finished Basic Module report of this kind runs 8 to 12 pages.
B1 — Basis for Preparation
The report opens with who you are and what the report covers:
This report has been prepared in accordance with the VSME Basic Module for the financial year 2025. It covers the company’s single production site. The company is a private limited company (Srl) active in metal machining (NACE C25.62), with 45 employees and net turnover of €6.2 million.
Where it comes from: company records. Five minutes of work, and it frames everything after it — one site, one year, Basic Module.
B2 — Practices and Policies
A short, honest statement of what you do and plan, not a manifesto:
The company operates an informal environmental practice focused on energy efficiency and waste segregation. A written environmental policy was adopted in 2025. Planned initiatives for 2026 include LED lighting across the workshop and a compressed-air leak survey.
Where it comes from: management knowledge. Informal practices count, stated as such; planned initiatives show direction without inventing programmes.
B3 — Energy and GHG Emissions
The report’s numerical core, and the section every customer and bank reads first:
Total energy consumption in 2025 was 590 MWh: 380 MWh purchased electricity and 210 MWh natural gas. None was self-generated from renewable sources. Scope 1 emissions (natural gas) are estimated at 42 tCO₂e; Scope 2 emissions (purchased electricity, location-based) at 95 tCO₂e. Total Scope 1 and 2 intensity: 22.1 tCO₂e per € million of turnover. Figures derive from utility invoices and published national emission factors.
Where it comes from: twelve months of utility bills, times published factors — arithmetic, not science. Our Scope 1 vs Scope 2 guide covers the split.
B4 — Pollution
Only what you already report to authorities, or a clear statement that nothing applies:
The company’s coating line reports solvent (VOC) emissions under its environmental permit: 1.8 tonnes in 2025. No other pollutants are subject to reporting requirements.
Where it comes from: your environmental permit returns, if any. An office-based business would simply state that no reportable emissions arise; see what pollutants SMEs measure.
B5 — Biodiversity
The company’s site is located in an industrial zone and is not in or adjacent to a protected natural area.
Where it comes from: a map check against protected-area registers. For most SMEs this disclosure is one sentence.
B6 — Water
Total water withdrawal in 2025 was 1,200 m³, from the municipal supply, used for sanitary purposes and machine-coolant preparation. The site is not located in an area of high water stress.
Where it comes from: the water bill; estimation methods where a shared building hides the figure.
B7 — Resource Use, Circular Economy and Waste
The company generated 85 tonnes of waste in 2025, of which 3.2 tonnes were hazardous (spent coolant and contaminated rags, handled by a licensed contractor). 62% of total waste by weight was recycled, principally metal offcuts returned to scrap dealers. Packaging pallets are reused through a supplier return scheme.
Where it comes from: the waste contractor’s annual summary and invoices; the hazardous waste guide covers the split.
B8 — Workforce: General Characteristics
At year end the company employed 45 people: 38 full-time and 7 part-time; 29 men and 16 women. All are employed under the national collective agreement for the metalworking sector.
Where it comes from: payroll. B8 to B10 are the fastest sections of the whole report.
B9 — Workforce: Health and Safety
Two recordable workplace accidents occurred in 2025, neither serious; both were investigated and corrective measures implemented. This corresponds to an accident rate of 4.4 per 100 workers.
Where it comes from: the accident log you already keep for national safety rules.
B10 — Workforce: Remuneration, Collective Bargaining and Training
100% of employees are covered by collective bargaining. The average hourly pay of female employees is 96% of that of male employees in comparable roles. Employees received an average of 12 hours of training in 2025, primarily machine-safety and quality certification.
Where it comes from: payroll and training records. Report the pay figures you can compute honestly and say how you computed them.
B11 — Convictions and Fines (Corruption and Bribery)
The company has had no convictions and no fines for corruption or bribery.
Where it comes from: legal records. For nearly every SME this is the shortest disclosure in the report — and it still must be stated rather than skipped.
What the Finished Document Looks Like
Assembled, the example above becomes a report with a one-page introduction (B1–B2), a data core (B3–B7), a workforce section (B8–B10), and a governance close (B11): roughly ten pages with a small table per numeric section. Three properties matter more than polish:
- Every figure carries a source note. “From utility invoices”, “from the waste contractor’s annual report”. This is what makes the report reusable as evidence, including inside EcoVadis assessments, where a VSME-aligned report now earns scoring credit.
- Non-applicable disclosures are stated, not skipped. B5’s single sentence does more work than its length suggests: it shows the topic was considered.
- The same answers serve every request. The figures in this walkthrough are precisely what customer questionnaires, banks, and platforms ask for, which is the answer-once logic the value-chain cap now backs in law.
If a bank or a major buyer is in the picture, add the two Comprehensive disclosures that sit outside the cap — climate targets (C3) and climate risks (C4) — as short, honest statements; see VSME Basic vs Comprehensive for the boundary.
You do not need to format any of this by hand: a free VSME report tool generates the finished Basic or Comprehensive report from your answers at no cost, with your figures and methodology notes kept in an ESG answer bank for the next request.
Common Mistakes in First Reports
- Mixing reporting periods — an energy figure from 2025 next to a waste figure from 2024. Fix the year in B1 and hold every section to it.
- Unlabelled estimates — an estimated water figure presented as measured. The standard accepts estimates; it expects them labelled.
- Skipping “empty” disclosures — omitting B5 or B11 because there is nothing to say. State the nothing.
- Overwriting B2 — three pages of sustainability narrative in a report whose credibility lives in its numbers. Two paragraphs suffice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a VSME Basic report be?
Eight to twelve pages is typical for a small business, and shorter is fine if your operations are simple. Length is not a quality signal; sourced figures and stated periods are. A 40-page first report usually means narrative padding, which reviewers skim past to find the tables.
Do I need to publish the report?
No. Most SMEs share it privately with the customers and banks that ask, though publishing on your website is allowed and can save repeated sending. The report is a voluntary document; who sees it is your choice.
Can I write “not applicable” for a whole disclosure?
Yes, with a one-line reason, as in the B5 example above. The applicability approach is central to the standard: you complete what applies and state briefly what does not. What you should not do is silently omit the section.
The example is a manufacturer. What changes for a services firm?
Mostly subtraction: B4 becomes “no reportable emissions”, B7 shrinks to office waste, and B3 is electricity-dominated with negligible Scope 1. The workforce sections (B8–B10) carry relatively more weight, and the whole report often fits in six to eight pages. The structure and sourcing discipline are identical.
Key Terms
- VSME Basic Module (B1–B11) — the eleven core disclosures walked through above.
- Comprehensive Module (C1–C9) — the extended disclosures; C3 (climate targets) and C4 (climate risks) are the additions banks and large buyers most often want.
- Applicability approach — complete each disclosure where it applies; state briefly where it does not.
- Scope 1 / Scope 2 — emissions from fuel you burn and energy you buy, both reported under B3.
- Methodology note — the one-line source statement (“from utility invoices”) that makes each figure reusable as evidence.
Conclusion
A VSME report is less a document than a discipline: one reporting year, eleven disclosures, a source note on every number, and “not applicable” said out loud. The fictional firm above assembled its report from bills, payroll, a waste summary, and an accident log — records it already held.
Yours will come from the same places. Gather the figures once, generate the report free, and let one well-sourced document answer the questionnaires that used to arrive as eleven different emergencies.