Most of a Voluntary Standard report (VS, formerly VSME) comes from documents your company already keeps. Collect them for the whole reporting period first, and filling in the report becomes a short job. Keep the same documents together afterwards: customers and banks may ask how a number was obtained.
From the accounts
- [ ] Annual financial statements: turnover and balance-sheet total (B1)
- [ ] Registration details: legal form and NACE code(s) (B1)
- [ ] List of subsidiaries, if you report on a consolidated basis (B1)
- [ ] Addresses of significant sites and assets (B1)
From energy and fuel invoices (B3)
- [ ] 12 monthly electricity invoices, in kWh
- [ ] Natural gas invoices, in kWh
- [ ] District heating or steam invoices, if you buy heat, and the supplier's emission factor if it publishes one
- [ ] Fuel-card statements or receipts for diesel, petrol and LPG, in litres
- [ ] The national grid emission factor for electricity (g CO2e/kWh) from a public source
The B3 guide shows how these become MWh and tonnes of CO2e.
From environmental records (B4–B7)
- [ ] Environmental permit reports or EMS records, only if you already report pollutant emissions (B4)
- [ ] Locations of sites, to check against biodiversity-sensitive areas such as Natura 2000 (B5)
- [ ] Water bills or meter readings, in m³ (B6)
- [ ] Your waste collector's invoices or annual statement: hazardous and non-hazardous waste in tonnes, and the share recycled or reused (B7)
Companies with 10 or fewer employees may treat B3, B6 and B7 as voluntary.
From payroll and HR (B8–B10)
- [ ] Headcount or full-time equivalents, split by permanent and temporary contracts and by gender (B8)
- [ ] Employees per country, if you employ in more than one country (B8)
- [ ] Register of work-related accidents: deaths and accidents causing more than three days of absence (B9)
- [ ] Total hours worked by all employees in the year, for the accident rate (B9)
- [ ] Confirmation that all employees earn at least the applicable minimum wage (B10)
- [ ] Gross hourly pay by gender, only if the law already requires you to report a gender pay gap (B10)
- [ ] Share of employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement (B10)
- [ ] Training hours delivered in the year, including mandatory safety training (B10)
From management and legal
- [ ] Any written and approved policies (environment, health and safety, code of conduct and so on), for B2
- [ ] Any convictions or fines for corruption or bribery in the period, normally none (B11)
Next step
With these documents in front of you, the free VS Report Builder does the calculations and prints the report. For the structure of the finished report, see the VSME report template.
Source: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1560, Basic Module B1–B11. General information, not legal advice.