Voluntary Reporting: How to Get Started in a Pragmatic Way

To many companies, sustainability reporting initially sounds like a major undertaking: lots of data, complex standards, and a significant amount of coordination. But especially for companies without a direct reporting obligation, the first step is often much more pragmatic. The key is not to immediately draft a comprehensive sustainability report. What matters is creating a robust foundational structure that provides guidance, enables companies to respond to external inquiries, and creates greater clarity internally.

Why Many Companies Need a Reporting Format Right Now

More and more often, sustainability requirements stem not (only) from regulations, but from the immediate business environment: Customers are requesting ESG data, banks expect structured information, and internal teams want a better overview of existing measures.

Typical starting situations often look like this:

• “We need to respond to customer inquiries.”
• “We need something for banks or lenders.”
• “We want to create more structure internally.”
• “We don’t need a comprehensive sustainability report just yet, but we do need something reliable.”

These situations have one thing in common: the goal isn’t to immediately put together a comprehensive sustainability report, but rather to create a functional initial framework.

When a Pragmatic Approach Makes More Sense

A comprehensive strategic sustainability report—perhaps even one aligned with the ESRS—can be extremely valuable. It promotes transparency, supports management, highlights progress, and prepares companies for a potential CSRD requirement. At the same time, it requires significant effort and delivers its greatest value when it is actively utilized. For many companies, however, this step is not the right starting point.

Instead, a pragmatic approach often makes more sense when:

• there is no immediate regulatory pressure,
• Information is available, but it is unstructured,
• Stakeholders have clear but limited requirements,
• Resources for complex projects are limited.

Common Mistakes When Getting Started with Reporting

Many projects have shown that the problem is rarely a lack of content. Often, the challenge lies more in how to get started.

We encounter these challenges particularly often in our day-to-day project work:

1. 1. The Wrong Starting Point: The “Perfect” Format: Many companies ask first, “Which standard should we use?” However, a more important question would be, “What exactly do we need the report for?” Only once the purpose and target audience are clear can a decision be made about which format truly meets the requirements.
   2. Applying CSRD Logic to Non-Reporting Companies: Another stumbling block arises when the logic of regulatory reporting is applied to companies that are not required to report at all. This often leads to unnecessarily complex data collection, overly elaborate processes, and a level of effort that is not required to achieve the actual objective. A voluntary adoption does not need to simulate regulatory completeness.
   3. Blurring the Lines Between Reporting and Strategy: A report is, first and foremost, a tool for structuring and communicating—it is no substitute for a comprehensive sustainability strategy. Many projects become unnecessarily extensive because people try to develop both at the same time. A pragmatic approach involves making a clear distinction: What can we report on? What do we want to develop strategically over the long term?
   4. A lot of data with no clear audience: “We’ll just collect all the data first.” That sounds thorough, but it often leads to a lot of effort, unclear priorities, and content that nobody really uses in the end. It makes more sense to first clarify the purpose and target audience and then selectively choose the data that’s relevant to them.
   5. Lack of a Basic Structure: The absence of a basic structure also makes it difficult to get started. Key metrics are presented separately, actions aren’t linked to one another, and responsibilities remain unclear. Without a simple organizational framework, even a short report can quickly become confusing.
   6. Too much design, too little structure: Especially in the beginning, people often put too much energy into design and presentation. The problem is that if the content isn’t clearly structured, even the best layout won’t help. An initial report can be deliberately simple in structure. What’s crucial at first is a clear content structure, upon which a compelling visual presentation can then be built.

Here’s How Companies Get Started in a Pragmatic Way

If common mistakes are avoided, the way you work will also change: away from large-scale reporting projects and toward an initial, functional structure. You don’t have to get it perfect from the start. What matters is making existing information visible, organizing it in a meaningful way, and using it to create a foundation that can be utilized both internally and externally.

When the VSME Is a Sensible Next Step

Once the initial structure is in place, many companies are faced with the question of how they can further professionalize it without significantly increasing its complexity. This is where a format such as the VSME report can be useful.

The VSME provides a clear, modular framework for companies that are not subject to the CSRD but wish to disclose ESG information more systematically. It is particularly helpful for companies that want to efficiently meet external requirements from customers, banks, or business partners and gradually expand their sustainability disclosures.

It is important to understand the VSME correctly. It is not a substitute for a comprehensive ESG strategy, nor is it a tool that automatically replaces in-depth analysis. However, it can be a very suitable starting point for organizing existing information, addressing requirements in a structured manner, and gradually developing reporting practices.

If you’d like a concise overview of the content, the level of detail in the reports, and possible formats, you’ll find more information here:

VSME at a Glance