Webinar: VSME and EcoVadis – How Voluntary Reporting Can Strengthen Your Scorecard [with EcoVadis]

VSME and EcoVadis: How Voluntary Reporting Can Strengthen Your Scorecard

Thursday, October 8, 2026 | 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. CEST | 60 minutes | free online webinar | presented in English

As of July 2026

The Omnibus Package has significantly narrowed the scope of the CSRD requirement. Many companies that had already prepared for the ESRS are now exempt from the requirement—but the data requests remain. Customers, banks, and investors continue to ask for them. In this free webinar, Five Glaciers Consulting and EcoVadis will show how a single report can serve two purposes: a recognized sustainability report for your stakeholders and evidence that strengthens your EcoVadis scorecard.

Why Voluntary Reporting Is Becoming More Important—Not Less Important—Under the Omnibus Act

It is a statutory deadline—not commercial pressure—that allows you to be exempt from this requirement. Supplier questionnaires, credit requirements, and credit rating requests continue to be submitted, each in its own format. This is exactly why the VSME was created: to provide a structured disclosure format that most requesters accept, rather than a patchwork of different formats.

A second effect is easily overlooked. Since the Omnibus Regulation took effect, the standard has also served as an upper limit on what clients subject to the CSRD may require from smaller partners in the value chain. A VSME report is thus both a response and a limit: it fulfills the request and defines its scope.

In our projects, hardly any company stops reporting once the requirement has been lifted. Most continue, and most choose the VSME format—usually because a client or a bank asked for it first. This is our observation based on our consulting experience; it is not a published statistic.

A tool, not a mandatory exercise

The session’s central thesis: A VSME report is not a one-time compliance effort. It generates exactly the evidence that EcoVadis evaluates—so the same effort pays off twice. Value is lost when companies handle these two processes separately: months apart, with different data managers, and without a shared evidence base.

What You'll Take Away from the Webinar

1. Recognized and credited. A VSME report prepared in accordance with the standard counts toward the reporting-related portion of your EcoVadis score. We outline what EcoVadis confirms in this regard and what remains subject to its methodology—without promising a specific score.
2. More than just metrics. The real value lies in the management system that the report drives: guidelines, goals, and actions. EcoVadis evaluates all three dimensions, not just the final metrics—which is why a report that’s purely data-driven performs poorly.
3. Collect the data once, use it twice. Whether you start with VSME or EcoVadis, the underlying documentation is largely the same. The second assessment will be faster and more cost-effective, provided the first one was properly documented.

Agenda

1. Introduction and Context. Who we are and why this topic is on the table right now.
2. The Situation Following the Omnibus Act—and What EcoVadis Recognizes. The Shift from Mandatory to Optional, an Overview of the VSME (Basic and Comprehensive Modules), and How EcoVadis Formally Recognizes a VSME Report.
3. The Building Blocks of a VSME Report—and How They Strengthen Your Scorecard. The core of the session, approximately 25 minutes: where the two frameworks overlap, how VSME documentation enhances the individual components of the scorecard, two starting points depending on your current situation, and whether this applies equally to EU and non-EU companies.
4. Bottom line: a tool, not a mandatory exercise. Three key takeaways plus three concrete first steps you can take right away.
5. Live Q&A. Your questions, moderated in collaboration with EcoVadis. Questions can be submitted via chat throughout the session.

Who should attend this webinar?

• Sustainability, ESG, and Reporting Officers in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
• Companies that are no longer subject to CSRD requirements under the Omnibus Act and wish to continue reporting
• Suppliers outside the EU who are required to respond to ESG data requests from their EU customers
• Companies with an existing EcoVadis rating that want a recognized report with minimal additional effort
• CFOs, as well as procurement and quality managers, who address ESG requirements from banks or customers

No prior knowledge of VSME is required. We will introduce the standard before linking it to the scorecard. Please note: The event will be conducted in English.

Speakers

Five Glaciers Consulting

Kevin Möller

Co-founder and Managing Director

Kevin Möller advises companies in the industrial, technology, and public sectors on carbon footprint assessment, ESG reporting, and sustainability strategy. He is an Approved EcoVadis Partner and an active member of the European VSME community.

Five Glaciers Consulting

Paulin Streit

Sustainability Consultant, VSME Lead

Paulin Streit is responsible for voluntary reporting at Five Glaciers Consulting and assists clients with VSME reports and EcoVadis assessments. She has a background in sustainability controlling and works at the intersection of ESG data and financial management.

EcoVadis will be participating in the session and co-moderating the live Q&A.

About the Organizers

Five Glaciers Consulting is a Hamburg-based consulting firm specializing in sustainability and ESG. We support companies in everything from strategy and reporting to carbon footprint assessment—in accordance with CSRD/ESRS, VSME, the GHG Protocol, SBTi, and EcoVadis—and have been an EcoVadis partner since our founding.

EcoVadis is one of the world's most widely used providers of sustainability ratings for companies and evaluates the areas of the environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement.

The format is a joint effort: Five Glaciers provides the content, and EcoVadis participates in the Q&A.

You can find background information on our consulting services on our pages dedicated to SME reporting in accordance with VSME and the EcoVadis rating. Our article on VSME as a pragmatic EU standard for SMEs explains how the standard is structured. Companies that are still required to comply can find the basics under “Reporting in Accordance with CSRD.”

Frequently Asked Questions About VSME and EcoVadis

Sources

1. European Commission: Recommendation on the Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for Non-Listed SMEs (VSME), July 30, 2025. ec.europa.eu
2. Mayer Brown: European Commission Adopts Revised European Sustainability Reporting Standards (July 2026), regarding the adoption of the Delegated Regulations, including the Voluntary Standard. mayerbrown.com
3. FIEC: European Commission Publishes Sustainability Reporting Standards, with access to the Delegated Act on the Voluntary SME Standard (2026). fiec.eu
4. EcoVadis: Recognition of a VSME report as an accepted reporting standard, captured via reporting question GEN600 (effective October 2025). Add a link to the primary source before publication.