Sustainability report under the EU Voluntary Standard (VS)
How to prepare a yearly sustainability report under VS in Climate Reporting, what is filled in automatically, and how to export the report to Excel.
Under Sustainability report in the menu, you can prepare a full sustainability report under the EU Voluntary Standard for sustainability reporting (VS). The standard is made for small and medium-sized companies that want to share standardised sustainability data with banks, customers and other stakeholders.
Much of the report is filled in automatically from your climate report, your accounts and the Brønnøysund Register Centre. You answer the rest in simple forms, one for each disclosure in the standard. When the report is done, you export it to Excel.
What is VS?
VS is the EU's voluntary sustainability reporting standard for small and medium-sized companies, adopted in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1560. It was previously called VSME (Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for non-listed SMEs). VSME was first published by EFRAG in 2024 and then as an EU recommendation in 2025, before becoming an EU standard under the name VS.
The standard has two modules:
- Basic module (B1–B11): The minimum, and the recommended choice for micro and small companies.
- Comprehensive module (C1–C9): Adds the information banks, investors and large customers often ask for. It is reported together with the basic module.
Large companies may not ask their suppliers for more information than VS covers.
Getting started
- Choose Sustainability report in the menu.
- Under Start a new report, choose the Financial year and What to report: Basic module or Basic and comprehensive module.
- Select Start report.
If you have a report for an earlier year, the answers that usually stay the same from year to year are copied, such as sites, policies and climate targets. Figures for a single year, such as waste amounts and the number of accidents, are not copied. Copied answers are marked, so you can check that they are still correct.
Filling in the report
The report for a year lists every disclosure in the module you chose, with its status: Not started, In progress, Done or Not applicable. Select a disclosure to open its form.
At the bottom of each form you find:
- Save: saves your answers and sets the disclosure to In progress.
- Save and mark as done: saves and sets the disclosure to Done.
- Back: returns to the overview for the year. If you have unsaved changes, you are asked whether you want to leave the page.
The help panel on the right explains terms such as the reporting boundary, significant Scope 3 categories, biodiversity-sensitive areas, water stress, hazardous waste and work-related accidents.
What is filled in automatically
| Disclosure | What is filled in | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| B1 | Legal form, NACE code and head office address | Company details (from the Brønnøysund Register Centre) |
| B1 | Turnover for the year | Your accounts. You can override the figure. |
| B1 | Coordinates for sites in Norway | The Norwegian address register |
| B3 | Energy consumption, renewable share and Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions | Your climate report |
| C1 | Your industry, as a hint for describing the business model | The Brønnøysund Register Centre |
| C3 | The base-year emissions, and the target values | The climate report for the base year |
| C3 and C8 | Pre-selected answers for high climate impact sectors and chemicals production | Your NACE code |
| C9 | The board members at the end of the year | The Brønnøysund Register Centre |
The B3 figures can't be changed in the form. If something is wrong, correct it in your data sources, for example under Data sources, and both the climate report and the sustainability report are updated. You choose the reporting boundary and which Scope 3 categories are significant.
The board in C9 is the board on 31 December of the report year. For years before 2025, today's board is shown, so check that it matches the year. The registry doesn't record gender, so you mark it for each member.
Voluntary disclosures for companies with 10 employees or fewer
Some disclosures are voluntary for companies with 10 employees or fewer: B3, B6, B7, C1, C4, C5, C6 and C7. For these, the form has a Leave out button where you can give a reason. The disclosure then gets the status Not applicable, and the reason is included in the report. You can change your mind and report the disclosure at any time.
The number of employees comes from B1, or from the company settings if B1 isn't filled in.
The disclosures in the report
Basic module
- B1 – Basis for preparation: Reporting basis, subsidiaries, key figures, sites, certifications and any omitted information.
- B2 – Practices, policies and future initiatives: What you have in place for climate, pollution, water, nature, circular economy, workers, communities, consumers and business conduct.
- B3 – Energy and greenhouse gas emissions: From your climate report. You choose the reporting boundary and the significant Scope 3 categories.
- B4 – Pollution of air, water and soil: Only applies if you already report pollutant emissions, for example to the Norwegian Environment Agency. A link to published figures is enough.
- B5 – Biodiversity: Mark the sites from B1 that are in or near a biodiversity-sensitive area.
- B6 – Water: Total water withdrawal, and water consumption if you have water-intensive processes.
- B7 – Resource use, circular economy and waste management: Circular practices, hazardous and non-hazardous waste, the share recycled, and any material flows.
- B8 – Workforce, general characteristics: Employees by contract type, gender and country. The form warns you if the totals don't match B1.
- B9 – Workforce, health and safety: Work-related accidents, hours worked and fatalities. The accident rate is calculated automatically.
- B10 – Workforce, remuneration, collective bargaining and training: Minimum wage, the gender pay gap (if you must report it), collective agreement coverage and training hours.
- B11 – Convictions and fines for corruption and bribery: Convictions and fines in the year.
Comprehensive module
- C1 – Strategy: business model and sustainability-related initiatives: Products and services, markets, main business relationships and sustainability in your strategy.
- C2 – Description of practices, policies and future initiatives: A short description of the topics you marked in B2.
- C3 – GHG reduction targets and climate transition: Base year, targets per scope, actions and transition plan.
- C4 – Climate risks: A checklist of physical hazards and transition events, with time horizon and adaptation actions.
- C5 – Additional workforce characteristics: Turnover, gender in management, and temporary and self-employed workers.
- C6 – Human rights policies and processes: Code of conduct and complaints-handling mechanism.
- C7 – Human rights incidents: Confirmed incidents in your own workforce and in the value chain.
- C8 – Revenues from certain activities: Weapons, tobacco, fossil fuels and chemicals.
- C9 – Gender diversity ratio in the governance body: The board members and the ratio of women to men.
Exporting to Excel
When you have answered all the sections, the report can be exported in Excel format. Go to the report for the year and select Download next to Sustainability report VS (Excel) under Download reports. You can also download the climate report for the year here.
The spreadsheet has an overview and one sheet per disclosure. Each datapoint is shown with a reference to its paragraph in the standard, its value and where it comes from (the registry, calculated, or entered by the company).
The overview only includes a statement that the report complies with VS when every disclosure is Done or Not applicable. Otherwise the report is marked as a DRAFT. Every export is saved in a log, so it is possible to see exactly what a report was based on.
If some fields in the report don't quite fit your needs, we recommend filling in as much as you can and then correcting the Excel report afterwards. Feel free to send us a message about things we can do better.
Deleting a report
On the page for the report year you find Delete report. All answers for the year are deleted, and this can't be undone. Reports you have already exported stay in the export log.