VSME is now VS: five steps to a voluntary sustainability report (template included)

If you've searched for "VSME" in recent months, you've probably stumbled across a new name: VS. Don't worry – this is not a new standard, but a rebrand of the same voluntary EU reporting standard, which has also been significantly expanded. This article clarifies the name change and shows you step-by-step how to set up your report.

VSME → VS: What has changed

The EU Commission is transitioning the previous VSME standard from a voluntary EFRAG recommendation into a delegated regulation and renaming it VS ("Sustainability Reporting Standard for Voluntary Use"). Three practical changes:

• Broader scope. Instead of the previous limit of around 250 employees, VS now applies to all non-CSRD-obligated companies with up to 1,000 employees – meaning the entire SME sector.

• Slimmer. The length has been reduced from around 66 pages to about 29 pages.

• Four-tier data logic. Data points are structured into required, situational, voluntary, and sector-specific – so you don't have to deliver everything at once.

For search purposes, this means: "VS" on its own is barely usable as a search term (easily confused with "versus"), which is why "VSME" or "VS (formerly VSME)" continues to be used in practice. Both terms refer to the same thing.

Why VS is the pragmatic path for medium-sized businesses

VS is not a mandatory standard – but it is the most logical one if you choose to report voluntarily or due to customer pressure. It is specifically designed for the scale of medium-sized businesses, covers the most frequently requested data points (energy, emissions, working conditions, governance), and as an EU-wide recognized framework, it is directly compatible with supplier questionnaires and EcoVadis assessments.

An example: transitioning from VSME to VS 2026

A mechanical engineering company with 180 employees had already prepared a VSME report in 2025 because a major customer requested it. After switching to VS 2026, the transition process looked like this:

1. Stocktaking: Aligning the previous VSME data points with the new VS 2026 structure – around 90% of the information could be adopted directly.

2. Identifying new data points: The remaining 10% or so primarily involved refined formulations and slightly adjusted categorizations, rather than fundamentally new data requirements.

3. Updating the structure: The report was transferred into the new module structure – an afternoon of work instead of a whole new project.

4. Customer informed: The requesting customer received a brief notification that the report is now based on VS 2026 instead of VSME – without any content-related questions, because the core messages remained unchanged.

The effort for a business that had already reported in compliance with VSME was thus in the low single-digit hours – significantly less than a complete new creation would have cost.

VS 2026 compared to other frameworks

The advantage of VS 2026 compared to the alternatives: It is specifically calibrated for the scale of medium-sized businesses, recognized, and now legally anchored – without reaching the scope of full CSRD reporting.

The four-tier data logic in detail

The transition from VSME to VS brings a structure that facilitates entry because it clearly separates mandatory requirements from voluntary additions:

The advantage of this structure: You don't have to deliver everything immediately. A VS report containing only "required" data is already a complete, valid start – "voluntary" and "sector-specific" can be added in subsequent years.

Typical mistakes in the first VS report

• Starting too late. Anyone who only begins collecting data after a customer inquiry faces time pressure and resorts to estimations.

• Adopting old VSME material without reflection. Anyone who worked on VSME prior to the rebrand should review the new, larger scope (up to 1,000 instead of 250 employees) and the slimmer structure – rather than simply continuing with the old document.

• Providing only "required" data without strategic selection of "voluntary" data. If you know that a major customer asks for specific Scope 3 categories particularly often, you should add these targetedly as "voluntary" rather than at random.

In 5 steps to the VS report

1. Clarify the scope. Check which of the four data categories (required/situational/voluntary/sector-specific) are relevant to you – required is the mandatory basis, the rest supplements depending on the situation.

2. Review existing data. Energy and resource consumption, fleet, HR data – much of this is already available in invoices and HR systems.

3. Identify and prioritize gaps. Focus first on the data points that your customer or bank are most likely to ask for (usually environment/energy).

4. Build the structure along VS. Align yourself consistently with the VS structure – this makes the report reusable both for auditors and for downstream requests (EcoVadis, customer questionnaires).

5. Establish a process rather than a one-off project. Set up data collection so that it happens continuously, rather than scrambling to gather it annually.

How strait supports the VS report

strait continuously records energy and operational data via IoT sensors and automatically assigns it to the VS structure. The effect is twofold: continuous measurement directly reduces energy costs because waste becomes visible – and the same data automatically feeds an auditable, VS-compliant report. One data collection process yields two results, instead of managing costs and reporting separately.

Free VS/VSME report template. Download the template – aligned with the current VS scope for up to 1,000 employees.

[→ Download template]

Ready for your VS report?

Download the free VS/VSME report template – or book a demo where we show you how strait automatically converts your operational data into a VS-compliant report.

[→ Download template] · [→ Book demo]