As an installation company, you typically do not need to set up new record-keeping for the waste question in a sustainability questionnaire. The figures requested are largely already available from your waste processor: a periodic overview with weight per waste stream and its destination. What is often missing is the connection between that overview and the work you perform on-site at customer locations, and that is precisely where much confusion arises.
The question in a questionnaire usually concerns how much waste your company produces, what portion of it is recycled, and whether hazardous waste is involved, such as cable offcuts with plastic sheathing, batteries, or refrigerant residues. These are not estimates you need to make yourself; they are figures your processor already records, because that processor is also bound by its own reporting obligations.
What your waste processor already maintains for you
Virtually every recognized waste processor sends a periodic overview, usually annually, per waste stream: residual waste, metal scrap, cable offcuts, packaging material, and electronic waste are weighed and recorded separately. That overview shows the weight in kilograms and the processing method, often referred to as recycling, incineration with energy recovery, or landfill. Some processors now also add a CO2 equivalent to this, but that is separate from the emission factors used for scope 1 and 2.
The overview you receive from the processor is in practice the most important source for this question in the questionnaire. A review of your own records often shows that the document has been in the mailbox or inbox for years, without anyone having connected it to sustainability reporting.
From company premises to work on-site
At an installation company, the majority of work is not at your own yard, but at the customer's location. This makes waste recording more difficult than for a company that handles everything at one site. Packaging material, cable offcuts, and old components that arise from an installation job sometimes come back with you to your own depot and then enter your own waste stream. In other cases, they are disposed of via the client's own container, for example at a larger construction project where the main contractor manages the waste streams.
This distinction is relevant because it determines which part of the waste administratively belongs to you and which part belongs to the client. A questionnaire typically asks about waste from your own business operations, not waste that is recorded under another party's name. When in doubt about where the boundary lies, it is advisable to check with the waste processor or the client themselves, rather than making your own assumption about how it will be handled.
Materials and inventory alongside waste
Beyond waste, a questionnaire sometimes also asks about material use: how much copper, plastic piping, or other raw materials are purchased annually, and to what extent these are recycled materials. That information is not available from the waste processor, but in your own procurement or inventory records. For many installation companies, this is a matter of reviewing the purchase invoices from the past year, not setting up a new measurement.
The VSME standard distinguishes between waste data and material use, and does not always ask for both. Which part is actually relevant for your company depends on what the customer, bank, or insurer specifically asks for. an overview by sector of what is and is not requested provides initial direction on this, specifically for the installation trade.
What this yields for the questionnaire
Once the processor's overview and purchasing data are placed side by side, completing the waste question is usually a matter of copying and confirming. This is also why a file that has been built once costs little time at the next questionnaire: the same sources are consulted again, not searched for again.
Are you uncertain whether a particular waste question falls within the VSME standard, or does it go beyond what a purchaser with fewer than one thousand employees may ask? see in a few questions where your company stands provides a first, free indication of this.
What if the figures are missing or incomplete
Not every installation company has a fixed contract with one waste processor, and some streams go through multiple parties at the same time. In that case, it is common to request an overview from each processor and combine the figures. If part of the data is missing, it is better to name it as an assumption than to present an estimate as hard figures. esgia does not conduct an audit or check on this; the entrepreneur confirms for themselves what has been read from the documents. how the data on the platform is generated explains which sources are used for this and where responsibility remains.
For specific questions about your own waste contract or the allocation with a main contractor, it is advisable to coordinate this directly with the processor or the client; this article describes common practice, not advice for your specific situation.
Would you like to know which waste question in your next questionnaire may and may not be asked, and whether the data you already have is sufficient? Do the free quick-scan or read the topics selected for each situation.