Aila's VSME Reporting Tool is a simple, automated solution designed to help comply with the Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for SMEs (VSME-ESRS). It streamlines sustainability reporting, making it easier for businesses to meet ESG requirements, enhance transparency, and improve stakeholder confidence.
The GHG Protocol (Greenhouse Gas Protocol) is an internationally used standard for calculating and reporting greenhouse gas emissions (also known as "carbon footprint").
The protocol assists companies in measuring and reporting their own climate impacts in a consistent and comparable manner. It divides emissions into three different categories (scopes):
The GHG Protocol is also a central framework in sustainability reporting according to the SME standard. In the SME standard's Basic Module, a company reports Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, and if desired, also Scope 3 emissions from predetermined areas.
VSME (The Voluntary Standard for non-listed Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises) is a sustainability reporting standard created on the initiative of the European Commission. It was developed by EFRAG (European Financial Reporting Advisory Group), which is the European advisory group for financial reporting.
VSME is designed to clarify and standardize SMEs' ESG reporting. The standard is practical and user-friendly, making it particularly suitable for companies that are starting sustainability reporting. It also aims to harmonize stakeholder ESG requests (e.g., from companies subject to CSRD reporting) and facilitate SMEs' access to sustainable finance.
Yes, the VSME report can technically also be created in Excel. It can be a viable option especially if you already have a clear understanding of the structure and content of the reporting and you are only reporting the basic module (Basic Module).
However, Excel is a more limited tool, and manual work is easily prone to errors, especially when multiple people are involved in data collection and editing.
Aila's reporting tool provides a structured and guided way to create a VSME report. Its advantages include:
Yes, in the basic module of the VSME standard, a company reports Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in accordance with the GHG Protocol.
If the company has also calculated Scope 3 emissions, they can also be reported in the basic module. Scope 3 emissions are reported on the VSME report from predetermined areas.
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is a European Union directive that requires large companies to publish information on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts of their operations. The CSRD expands the previous Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) and aims to increase transparency and comparability in corporate sustainability reporting.
The provisions of the CSRD began to be applied gradually from 2024, depending on the size and type of the company. In the first phase, the CSRD applied to companies that exceed two of the following three criteria
In February 2025, the European Commission proposed a legislative package to simplify EU rules and enhance competitiveness (known as the Omnibus package), which suggests relaxations and deferrals of the directive.
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is primarily aimed at relatively large companies (see more details from the link below), but it is designed to eventually also cover listed SMEs. Due to ongoing changes (the so-called Omnibus package published in early 2025), it is not yet precisely known how the requirements will expand.
However, CSRD already has an indirect impact on SMEs through the value chains of large companies. For this reason, a voluntary VSME standard, which is compatible with CSRD and ESRS, has been created for companies that fall outside of CSRD, such as small SMEs and unlisted SMEs.
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