What does a sustainability report cost?

Three things drive the price

Three things matter most: which requirements apply to your company, how much of the work you do yourselves or buy in, and how automated your data collection is. A large company that has to comply with the law has a completely different calculation than a smaller business that wants to answer a customer's questions about sustainability. So two companies in the same industry can end up paying very different amounts.

In this guide, we go through what drives the cost of a sustainability report, what large and smaller companies actually pay for when they produce one, and how you can easily keep the price down year after year.

See what it costs for your company

Sustainability reporting or sustainability disclosure?

In everyday language, both terms are used for the same thing. Sustainability disclosure is the older, broader term. Sustainability reporting is what's most often used today when people talk about CSRD and VS (formerly VSME). In this article we say sustainability report, but the cost is the same whatever you call it.

Which requirements apply to your company?

Before we talk money, it's worth separating three common situations a company can be in. The rules have also changed quite a lot over the past year, so information that was true a year ago may no longer apply.

Large companies covered by the CSRD

The CSRD, or Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, is the EU's directive on sustainability reporting. Companies in scope must report according to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). These are detailed standards that set out what information a CSRD report has to include.

Among other things, the CSRD requires companies to carry out a double materiality assessment. This means assessing both how the business affects people and the environment, and how sustainability issues affect the company's finances [1, 2]. If climate is assessed as material, the company must also report its emissions in scopes 1, 2 and 3, which includes emissions in the supply chain [3].

Where does the sustainability report go?

For companies covered by the CSRD, the sustainability report is part of the management report in the annual report [1]. So it's not a standalone document but part of regular financial reporting, with the same deadline.

New requirements after Omnibus

The CSRD was originally meant to be phased in and cover more and more companies over time. Large listed companies with more than 500 employees would go first, followed by other large companies. But in February 2026, the EU published its Omnibus I simplification package, and that redrew the map [4].

Now only companies with more than 1,000 employees and net turnover above EUR 450 million are covered by the CSRD [4]. Listed small and medium-sized companies have been removed from the directive entirely, so far fewer companies will have to report under the CSRD than originally planned. The plan to tighten the auditor's assurance to reasonable assurance has also been scrapped [5].

What applies in Sweden?

EU member states have until March 2027 to transpose the changes into national law [4]. In Sweden, the government inquiry behind SOU 2026:27 proposes thresholds of more than 1,000 employees and net turnover above SEK 4.9 billion [6, 7]. Companies that already report but fall below the new thresholds would not have to report for the 2026 financial year [6, 8].

The inquiry estimates that around 150–200 Swedish companies will be covered [7]. The proposal was out for consultation until August 2026, so keep an eye on what the Swedish parliament finally decides [8].

Read more about what the CSRD requirements mean in our guide.

SMEs getting questions from customers and banks

The second group is much larger: small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that aren't covered by the CSRD but still get questions about their sustainability data and operations. They don't have to report by law, but customers still want answers. Maybe a major customer requires you to report your emissions, or your sustainability work affects the terms of a bank loan. It could also be a tender where you need to describe your sustainability work.

This group now also includes many larger companies with 250–1,000 employees. They expected to be covered by the requirements, but after Omnibus they fall outside. That doesn't make the questions from customers and banks go away, though. The large companies covered by the CSRD still need information from their suppliers.

This is where the voluntary standard VS (formerly VSME) is a good fit. It was designed specifically to give SMEs one common answer to the many scattered ESG requests they receive [9, 10].

Companies that want to be ahead of the curve

The third group is smaller companies that want to build clear sustainability work without any requirement forcing them to. This is where you have the most freedom, and the cost can vary enormously depending on the approach you choose.

What does the cost include?

Whatever requirements apply, sustainability reporting follows the same basic steps: data collection, analysis, report writing and sometimes assurance. The first step is where costs tend to spiral, because of all the manual work.

Data collection – the biggest cost driver

Data collection means gathering actual figures for the company's operations: energy, business travel, purchases, waste, social metrics and more. Many companies underestimate how long it takes to pull together data for the whole business.

Manually collecting, sorting and quality-checking data from supplier invoices, travel bookings and electricity bills takes a lot of internal time. If the company buys in help, it takes just as much consultant time instead. EFRAG, which developed VS, describes the many uncoordinated ESG requests as a heavy burden for SMEs [9].

Skip the manual data collection – connect your accounting to GoClimate

Analysis and calculation

The next step is converting raw data into the company's greenhouse gas emissions using recognised methods such as the GHG Protocol. This requires up-to-date emission factors and knowing how to apply them to different types of purchases. If the calculations are wrong, the credibility of the whole report is at risk.

Report writing

Finally, the results have to be presented according to the right standards: ESRS for companies covered by the CSRD and VS for most others. The report describes the company's environmental impact, social issues, governance and future targets. It also covers how the company handles its most important sustainability issues and what sustainability work is planned.

Assurance and credibility

A sustainability report has to be transparent and reliable for customers, banks and other stakeholders to trust it. Otherwise it's not worth much more than the paper it's written on. For companies covered by the CSRD, external assurance by an auditor is a legal requirement [11]. A voluntary VS report has no such requirement. But figures pulled directly from your accounting through an automatic connection are both easier to trust and easier to check.

What does the CSRD cost large companies?

For companies that have to report under the CSRD, there are public cost estimates to go on. The two key figures come from a cost-benefit analysis carried out by the consultancy Milieu and the think tank CEPS ahead of the directive [12].

What it costs in numbers

For listed companies with more than 500 employees, the one-off cost averaged around SEK 4.5 million (about EUR 395,000). Annual costs came to around SEK 7.5 million (about EUR 680,000) per company [12].

For unlisted companies with more than 250 employees, the figures were much lower: around SEK 0.5 million (about EUR 49,000) as a one-off cost and around SEK 1 million (about EUR 85,000) per year [12].

With GoClimate, ongoing carbon accounting starts at a few hundred kronor a month – see pricing

Why the figures are probably lower today

The estimates were made before Omnibus. Since then, the group of companies in scope has shrunk considerably, and several requirements have been simplified under the new rules. That should make reporting cheaper. So the amounts give you a sense of scale, not an exact price tag for 2026.

The auditor's review costs extra

On top of this comes the auditor's review of the sustainability report, which is a separate engagement from the regular financial audit. The review is carried out with limited assurance [11]. After Omnibus, it's clear this will stay that way. The planned move to reasonable assurance, which would otherwise have more than doubled the cost, has been removed [5, 12].

VS – a cheaper route for SMEs

For SMEs the calculation looks different, but the cost of sustainability reporting is just as real. Many say they get one ESG questionnaire after another from customers and banks, all in different formats. Answering takes time, and the answers can rarely be reused.

What is VS?

VS (formerly VSME) is a voluntary sustainability reporting standard developed by EFRAG and published in December 2024 [9]. The European Commission recommended the standard on 30 July 2025. It encourages large companies and banks to base their questions to smaller companies on VS as far as possible [10].

What about NSRS?

You may have heard of NSRS, the Nordic Sustainability Reporting Standard. It was developed by the Nordic accountancy federations as a common standard for smaller companies in the Nordics. It's now called Nordic Sustainability Reporting for SMEs and is based on VS, with a tool and guidance adapted for Nordic companies [13]. So if you choose VS, you're in line with NSRS.

One report instead of ten questionnaires

The point of the voluntary EU standard VS is simple: do the work once, then refer to your report whenever a customer or bank gets in touch. The same information can serve several stakeholders, so the company doesn't have to answer two or three different questionnaires about the same thing. The Commission describes the standard as a credible replacement for a large share of the requests that banks and large companies send to smaller companies in their value chain [14].

Omnibus also adds protection in law. Companies with up to 1,000 employees can decline requests from CSRD companies that go beyond what the voluntary standard requires [5].

This means sustainability reporting under VS doesn't have to be a new project every time someone asks. The report can be updated and built on year after year, especially if it has a structured, automated foundation from the start.

Try GoClimate's VS tool

The hidden cost: internal time

One cost that's often forgotten is internal time. Someone at the company has to own the report, usually with help from finance, purchasing and HR. Without automation the work can take a lot of hours, and that time costs money even if it never shows up on a consultant's invoice.

Dependence on external consultants is also a known problem. At the EFRAG–OIC symposium in 2025, speakers pointed out that SMEs' reliance on consultants isn't sustainable in the long run [15].

How automation changes the calculation

Reporting based on manual data collection is expensive and hard to repeat with the same quality next year. It becomes a one-off project rather than a system.

Connect the report to your accounting

The most effective way to cut costs is to integrate sustainability reporting with the systems you already use, especially your accounting. Most of the data is then collected automatically, instead of someone matching invoices to emission factors by hand.

With GoClimate, you connect your accounting to our tool. Purchases are then categorised and greenhouse gas emissions are calculated continuously [16]. So the heaviest part of the job, getting reliable sustainability data, is handled automatically, and next year's report is more or less just an update.

What does GoClimate's tool cost?

A VS report from GoClimate starts at SEK 7,000 for companies with 1–10 employees, and the price goes up with the number of employees [16]. Ongoing carbon accounting for the whole business starts at SEK 350 a month [17]. Compare that with what consultant hours and internal time for a manual report usually cost.

See pricing and get started

From cost to value

Make an action plan

A sustainability report doesn't have to be just a cost. Once the reporting is done, you can see where your emissions actually come from and which sustainability issues matter most to you. You can use that to create an action plan for a more sustainable business and to strengthen relationships with customers, banks and other stakeholders.

Start early – it's cheaper

Whatever your situation, there's a clear pattern: companies that get started early pay less. The work isn't easier for them, but they have time to build systems and routines step by step. The alternative is buying an expensive consulting project the day before a customer demands answers.

It's also worth separating the cost of a report from the cost of a sustainable reporting process. The first is a project. The second is an investment in the company's sustainability and in a more sustainable business.

Want to know what it would cost for your company?

GoClimate helps SMEs automate their data and get a finished sustainability report under VS, without thousands of hours of manual work. Book a call and we'll go through which requirements apply to your company and what it would cost to get started.

Read more about VS in our guide.

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