The sustainability requirements faced by SMEs and the related information requests take many different forms. They arise, at least indirectly, from EU regulation and sustainability standards, large customers, financiers and other stakeholders. A company may be asked, for example, to provide information on emissions, employees, the supply chain or its sustainability practices. Read more
The sustainability requirements faced by SMEs and the related information requests take many different forms. They arise, at least indirectly, from EU regulation and sustainability standards, large customers, financiers and other stakeholders. A company may be asked, for example, to provide information on emissions, employees, the supply chain or its sustainability practices. Read more
VSME reporting changed significantly when the European Commission adopted a delegated regulation on 3 July 2026 that elevates the voluntary sustainability reporting standard for SMEs (VSME) to an entirely new position. The decision is part of the Omnibus I reform, which aims to reduce the administrative burden on companies and improve the competitiveness of the European Union. For SMEs, the decision changes in practice what kind of sustainability information large customers can request from their suppliers and how SMEs can respond to these information requests. Read more
Sustainability work in SMEs currently raises the same question in many companies: what is a sufficient level? Customers, financiers and other stakeholders are placing increasing expectations on sustainability, but for many businesses it remains unclear how much sustainability work is enough and where efforts should be focused. Should the company prepare a sustainability report, calculate its carbon footprint, build a set of sustainability metrics, or do everything at once? Read more
It is advisable for SMEs to review the sustainability claims on their websites early, before the same messaging spreads to the company’s other communication channels. The same applies to brochures, proposal templates, product and service descriptions, social media posts, sales materials, and possible packaging. If an overly broad or imprecise claim is used in one place, the same message can quickly be repeated elsewhere. Read more
Can an SME say it is responsible? It can, but the claim is at the same time very broad and therefore also risky. The problem is usually not the word itself, but that the recipient may understand it much more broadly than the company intends. If a company states that it is responsible, the listener or reader may easily interpret that the entire business, all products, the whole supply chain, and all practices are responsible. Read more
The need to substantiate a sustainability claim arises as soon as a company makes a claim that may influence a customer’s or consumer’s perception of a product, service or company. In practice, this means that there should be something more behind the claim than a good intention, a general view or a vague impression. From an SME’s perspective, what matters is not only whether the claim feels right, but also whether the company can explain what the claim means, what it concerns and what it is based on. Read more
Risky sustainability claims are usually claims where the communication goes further than the company’s evidence. The most common problem for an SME is usually not intentional misleading, but a message that is too general, too broad, or poorly defined. Government proposal HE 47/2026, which concerns the implementation of the EU Directive on empowering consumers for the green transition, clearly shows what kinds of claims the regulation focuses on. General environmental claims, sustainability labels, overly broad claims concerning the entire company, and climate claims based on offsetting are particularly sensitive. Read more
In an SME, a sustainability claim does not mean only a sentence in which the company says it is responsible. A sustainability claim can also be a claim about environmental friendliness, carbon neutrality, or a smaller environmental impact. It can also appear as a symbol, a label, in the name of a product or service, or in the way the company names its selection or an individual product group. Read more
SME sustainability claims are now a more important topic than before. It is allowed and necessary to communicate about sustainability, but the problem is not communication itself, but claims that are too general, too broad, or weakly justified. Misleading environmental claims could already be addressed under the current Consumer Protection Act, but the EU directive on empowering consumers for the green transition clarifies the rules of the game, and in Finland HE 47/2026 shows what changes are coming. According to the Government proposal, the provisions related Read more
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