When your buyer references VSME, they almost certainly mean the Basic Module. It is the minimum dataset that allows a CSRD-obligated company to report on their supply chain. Think of it as the floor, the least you will be asked for, not the most.
The good news: the Basic Module is designed to be achievable. It does not ask for lifecycle assessments, product-level carbon footprints, or Scope 3 breakdowns. It asks for operational data that most well-run agricultural operations already have, just not in a standardized format.
Energy Consumption
What VSME asks for: Total energy consumption in MWh, broken down by source.
Where to find it on your farm:
- Electricity, utility bills give you kWh directly. Convert to MWh by dividing by 1,000
- Diesel, fuel invoices or tank delivery records. Liters convert to MWh using standard factors (1 litre diesel ≈ 0.0101 MWh)
- Gas, utility bills in kWh or m³. If in m³, multiply by the calorific value on your bill
- Heating oil, delivery invoices. Liters convert using standard factors (1 litre kerosene ≈ 0.0103 MWh)
- Renewables, if you have solar panels, a wind turbine, or biomass heating, include generation data from inverter readings or meter exports
What good enough looks like: Annual totals by source, derived from invoices. You do not need real-time monitoring. Twelve months of bills compiled into a table is sufficient for VSME Basic.
Common gap: Red diesel used across multiple enterprises (farm, contracting, landlord obligations). If you cannot split consumption by use, report the total and note the estimation methodology.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
What VSME asks for: Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in tonnes CO2 equivalent.
How to calculate for a farm:
- Scope 1, direct emissions from your operation:
- Fuel combustion (diesel, gas, oil), multiply liters by DEFRA/IPCC emission factors
- Livestock methane (enteric fermentation), multiply headcount by species-specific factors
- Manure management emissions, from livestock housing and storage systems
- Fertilizer N2O, multiply kg nitrogen applied by default emission factor (typically 0.01 kg N2O-N per kg N)
- Liming, if you apply lime, multiply tonnes by emission factor for CaCO3 or dolomite
- Scope 2, purchased electricity emissions. Multiply kWh by your grid's emission factor (location-based) or your supplier's specific factor (market-based)
What good enough looks like: IPCC Tier 1 calculations using default emission factors. No one expects farm-level direct measurement of methane. Standard factors applied consistently to your activity data is the accepted methodology.
Common gap: Many operations have energy data but have never converted it to CO2e. The calculation is mechanical, once you have energy data, emissions follow from a multiplication table. The Energy ROI Calculator does this conversion in your browser, with no signup required.
Workforce Metrics
What VSME asks for: Headcount, gender breakdown, health and safety data, training.
Where to find it on your farm:
- Headcount, payroll records. Report total employees and FTE (full-time equivalent) to account for part-time and seasonal workers
- Gender split, from HR records or payroll. Percentage male/female across the workforce
- Health and safety, accident book entries, RIDDOR reports, near-miss logs. Report lost-time injuries, recordable incidents, and fatalities (hopefully zero)
- Training, training records, certificates. Total hours or days of training delivered. For farms, this includes sprayer certification (PA1/PA2/PA6), chainsaw competence, first aid, manual handling, telehandler operation
What good enough looks like: Annual snapshot numbers. You do not need a sophisticated HR system. A spreadsheet with headcount by month, a safety record, and a training log covers the Basic Module requirement.
Common gap: Seasonal workers. If you employ harvest labor, contract gangs, or agency workers, document how you count them. FTE normalizes this, a worker employed for 3 months equals 0.25 FTE.
Water
What VSME asks for: Total water withdrawal by source.
Where to find it on your farm:
- Mains water, utility bills give you m³ directly
- Borehole/groundwater, abstraction license records or meter readings. If unmetered, document your estimation method
- Surface water, abstraction records where applicable
- Rainwater harvesting, estimated from collection system capacity and rainfall data if not metered
- Irrigation, this is often the largest water use on farm. Metered volumes, or calculated from application rates and areas irrigated
What good enough looks like: Annual totals by source. For irrigated operations, break out irrigation separately as buyers particularly care about agricultural water use.
Common gap: Unmetered borehole use. If you abstract groundwater without a meter, install one. In the interim, document your estimation methodology (pump capacity × running hours is the standard approach).
Waste
What VSME asks for: Total waste generated by type and destination.
Where to find it on your farm:
- General waste, skip hire invoices, waste collection records. Tonnes or m³ to landfill
- Recycling, farm plastics collection (crop covers, silage wrap, fertilizer bags), metal recycling, cardboard
- Hazardous waste, agrochemical containers, waste oils, veterinary waste. Waste transfer notes are your source
- Organic waste, crop residues, animal bedding, food processing waste. Note: material that stays on farm (straw incorporated, manure spread) is not waste in the reporting sense
What good enough looks like: Annual totals by category and destination. Waste transfer notes provide most of this. Farm plastic recycling schemes (like the UK's farm plastics collection) give you documented recycling volumes.
Biodiversity
What VSME asks for: Basic information about land use, proximity to sensitive areas, and habitat features.
Where to find it on your farm:
- Land use breakdown, total hectares by type (arable, permanent pasture, temporary grass, woodland, set-aside, buildings/yards)
- Sensitive areas, check whether any of your land is near or within a Natura 2000 site, SSSI, or other protected designation. Your national environmental agency's mapping tool shows this
- Habitat features, hedgerow length, ponds, field margins, buffer strips, woodland. Environmental stewardship records or agri-environment scheme maps are your source
What good enough looks like: A land use table and a statement about proximity to protected sites. You do not need a full biodiversity assessment for the Basic Module, just factual descriptions of what habitats exist on your land.