European green light for VSME standard - what does it mean for SMEs?
Good news for SMEs wanting to report on sustainability: the European Commission issued a formal recommendation on July 30, 2025 to use the VSME standard as a guideline for sustainability reporting. This will finally give SMEs a concrete and recognized framework - without the complexity of the CSRD.
✔️ What exactly is the European Commission saying?
EFRAG writes: "The European Commission has formally recommended the use of the VSME standard for voluntary sustainability reporting by SMEs."
The recommendation emphasizes that VSME is the standard for SMEs that want to voluntarily share sustainability information - for example, in the context of procurement, financing, supply chain questions or strategic transparency.
This recommendation makes it clear: companies reporting through VSME meet what Brussels expects from voluntary SME reporting. This creates clarity and trust towards customers, banks and governments.
📄 Also view: sample sustainability report (VSME)
🧩 What is VSME again?
VSME stands for "Voluntary Sustainability standard for Micro and Small Enterprises." The standard was developed by EFRAG, at the request of the European Commission, and is intended to help SMEs report on environmental, social issues and governance in an approachable way - without the administrative burden of the CSRD.
Instead of hundreds of KPIs (as in the CSRD), the VSME standard includes a compact structure of core topics such as:
CO2 emissions and energy use
Diversity and employee policies
Business ethics and supply chain information
Want to know more about the content? Then read our guide to the VSME standard.
🛠️ Greenreporting: your VSME report in an afternoon
With Greenreporting, SMEs create a full sustainability report to the VSME standard in one afternoon. You enter your company data, and our tool:
✅ Automatically calculates your CO2 emissions
✅ Converts all information to the correct VSME structure
✅ Groups everything by theme and exports your report in PDF or Excel
✅ Gives you a dashboard to keep track of your progress
Thus, voluntary reporting suddenly becomes very concrete - and at the same time you work on your preparation for future demands.
👉 Check out the features of the Greenreporting tool
💬 What does this mean for your business?
Although as an SME you are not (yet) obliged to report, pressure is growing from chains, banks and governments. The European recommendation indicates: this is the direction we are going. By starting to report via VSME now, you are taking a strategic lead.
In short: this is the time to get started.
And with Greenreporting's tool, you make that step simple, understandable and affordable.
🔗 Start now via tool.greenreporting.co.uk/register
