The choice for ESG reporting
Sverdrup opts for the VSME standard – a simpler route of transparency and integrity when reporting on our sustainability efforts.
Sverdrup opts for the VSME standard – a simpler route of transparency and integrity when reporting on our sustainability efforts.
The EU made a significant market adaptation in February 2025, when the Omnibus I directive exempted 80% of European businesses from the corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD). The mandatory ESRS standard, consisting of more than 2000 disclosure requirements, was now reserved for companies employing over 1,000 workers and turning over more than 450 million euros annually.
Other companies are recommended to use the VSME standard (voluntary sustainability reporting standard for small and mediumsized companies). It covers all significant sustainability areas with a fraction of the disclosure requirements. It also sets the limit of sustainability reporting to be required from nearby companies in a value chain.
The CSRD requires that reporting companies assess the materiality of their sustainability footprint. This means Sverdrup went through the operations to extract a list of activities which materially impact sustainability. These activities are included in the sustainability report.
Sverdrup Steel AS is not formally obliged to submit a CSRD report prepared according to the ESRS standard for the financial year of 2025. Sverdrup has opted to report in accordance with the EU’s VSME standard for 2025. In addition, Sverdrup has carried out a double materiality assessment which validates and strengthens the company’s sustainability policy.
The EU’s sustainability reporting regime consists of CSRD, the taxonomy directive, and the corporate sustainability due diligence directive (CSDDD), as well as several smaller directives. The purpose is to cut GHG emissions to fulfill the Paris goals. In addition to “hard” mission data disclosures, the EU requires companies to disclose social and governance sustainability performance – the ESG report.
