A 60-question ESG questionnaire from a large customer is intimidating. Most of the questions map onto a dozen numbers you can prepare once.
Five steps
- Identify the purpose. Is the request for the customer's CSRD report, a bank loan, a tender, or a specific law such as the Deforestation Regulation? The value chain cap only covers CSRD reporting.
- Prepare your Basic Module report with the VS Report Builder. Bilingual output helps when the customer's head office works in English.
- Map the questions to VS datapoints: energy → B3, headcount → B8, accidents → B9, policies → B2, corruption → B11.
- Answer what you can and say what you don't measure. "Not measured in 2026; we will report it from 2027" is better than a guess.
- Keep an evidence file: invoices, payroll summaries and waste statements for each number.
Questions that often go beyond the Basic Module
Scope 3 emissions, product carbon footprints, supplier audits, biodiversity assessments and detailed human-rights due diligence. For CSRD-related requests, a protected supplier may decline information beyond the value chain cap. See the value chain cap guide.
General information, not legal advice.