The cost varies significantly depending on which requirements apply to your company, how much of the work you do in-house versus outsource, and how automated your data collection is. In this guide, we walk through the factors that affect the price most — and what companies are actually paying for when they produce a sustainability report.

Three very different situations

Before we talk costs, it's worth distinguishing between three common situations companies find themselves in.

The first is large companies formally subject to CSRD and ESRS. This involves a statutory, audit-required process where companies must, among other things, conduct a double materiality assessment, report scope 3 data, and integrate the sustainability report into the annual report [1, 2]. The requirements under CSRD mean that costs for companies in this category are substantial — and increase further if the audit is conducted at a higher assurance level [3].

The second is small and medium-sized enterprises that are not (yet) formally subject to CSRD, but still face growing demands from customers, banks, and investors. Perhaps it's a major customer relationship requiring the company to report sustainability data, or a bank loan where the business's sustainability performance affects the terms. Here, the voluntary VSME standard fits very well — it was explicitly developed to give small and medium-sized enterprises a standardised answer to the often fragmented ESG requests they receive from customers and financiers [6, 7].

The third is the smaller company that wants to stay ahead of the curve or proactively build a sustainability profile without being legally required to. Here, the freedom to choose is greatest — and the cost can vary enormously depending on how the company chooses to proceed.

What does the cost include?

Regardless of which requirements apply, sustainability reporting is built on three parts: data collection, analysis, and report writing. It is primarily in the first part — data collection — where time and financial costs tend to spiral if you haven't chosen an automated solution.

Data collection means producing actual figures for the business's impact: energy consumption, business travel, purchases, waste, social KPIs, and more. Many companies underestimate how time-consuming this is. Manually collecting, categorising, and quality-assuring data from supplier invoices, travel bookings, and electricity and fuel consumption requires significant internal effort — or just as much in consulting fees if the company outsources the work. EFRAG, which developed the VSME standard, specifically highlights the fragmented and uncoordinated ESG requests as one of the heaviest cost drivers for small and medium-sized enterprises today [7]. There are, however, solutions like GoClimate's own tool that automates much of this work.

Analysis means converting raw data into carbon emissions calculated according to recognised methodologies, such as the GHG Protocol. This requires access to up-to-date emission factors and knowledge of how these are correctly applied to different types of purchases and activities. Incorrect calculations risk undermining the entire report's credibility.

Report writing means presenting the results in a format that meets the applicable standard — either ESRS for companies subject to CSRD, or VSME for others. This includes, among other things, a written description of the business's environmental and social impact, governance structure, and forward-looking targets.

What does it cost for large companies subject to CSRD?

For companies formally required to report under CSRD, there are public cost estimates to draw on. The EU's own impact assessments indicate that one-off costs for large listed companies average approximately €400,000 per company, with annual recurring costs of approximately €650,000.

On top of this comes auditor review, which is a legal requirement under the new CSRD rules and is carried out with so-called limited assurance [4, 5]. This is a separate commitment beyond the ordinary audit and any consulting costs. Should the assurance level be raised to reasonable assurance, annual reporting costs for companies are estimated to more than double [3].

Why VSME reduces costs for small and medium-sized enterprises

For small and medium-sized enterprises not subject to CSRD, the starting point is different — but the challenge of costs is no less real. On the contrary, many companies report being bombarded with various ESG surveys and requests from customers and banks, all in different formats and with different requirements. Responding to them costs time and money, and the answers can rarely be reused.

This is precisely the problem the VSME standard was created to solve. The European Commission recommended the standard in July 2025 and simultaneously urges large companies and financial actors to limit their information requests to what is included in VSME [6, 7]. Instead of handling dozens of differently formatted requests from customers and banks, a company can do the work once — and then refer to its VSME report.

In practice, this means sustainability reporting doesn't have to be a new one-off project every time a customer or bank gets in touch. The report can be reused, built upon, and updated annually — if it is structured and automated from the start.

Try GoClimate's VSME tool

The hidden cost: internal time

One cost that is often overlooked in the calculation is internal time. The work of producing a sustainability report needs an internal owner, often with support from finance, procurement, and HR. Without automated data collection, the internal workload can become very significant — and that's time that costs money whether or not it shows up on a consulting invoice.

Research and market experience indicate that dependence on external consultants for small and medium-sized enterprises is a known problem that is not sustainable in the long run [8]. It is also one of the reasons why automation is the single most important factor in keeping the costs of sustainability reporting down over time.

How automation changes the equation

A sustainability report built on manual data collection is expensive — and also difficult to repeat at consistent quality. It becomes a one-off project rather than an ongoing system.

Companies that connect their bookkeeping to GoClimate's tool for automated sustainability reporting categorise purchases and calculate the business's carbon emissions on an ongoing basis — from SEK 7,000 per year, a fraction of the cost of manual calculation. Data collection happens in real time, without anyone having to manually match supplier invoices against emission factors. This means that a large part of the time otherwise spent on the most demanding task — producing reliable data — is eliminated, and the cost of repeating the report the following year drops significantly.

The cost goes down if you start early

Regardless of your situation, a clear pattern holds: companies that start early pay less. Not because they do a simpler job, but because they have time to build systems, routines, and data flows gradually — rather than rushing into an expensive consulting project the day before new requirements come into force.

It's also worth distinguishing between the cost of producing a report and the cost of building a sustainable reporting process. The first is a project. The second is an investment.

Want to know what it would cost for your specific company?

GoClimate helps small and medium-sized enterprises automate their climate data collection and produce sustainability reports according to the VSME standard — without requiring hundreds of hours of manual work. Book a call with us and we'll walk through which requirements apply to your business and what it actually costs to get started.