Is there an ESG certificate for SMEs?
No. For the sustainability questionnaires that SMEs receive from a large customer, their bank or their insurer, there is currently no recognised certifying body. There is therefore no mark of approval, no certificate and no audit that can establish that your reporting is "approved". That applies to esgia, and it applies equally to any other provider that claims otherwise.
What does exist is a standard to work towards: the VSME, the voluntary EU standard for unlisted SMEs. This standard describes what information a reporting entity may ask of a smaller supplier, and in what form. A standard is a framework against which to measure an answer. It is not an assessment of that answer, and it does not provide a stamp that you can display anywhere.
The difference between a standard and a stamp
The confusion arises because both terms are often used interchangeably. A standard, such as the VSME, determines what may be asked and answered: which topics, what level of detail, what structure. A certificate or mark would do something different: it would have an independent party confirm that your answers are correct. For financial statements of listed companies, this second layer does exist, in the form of assurance by an auditor. For an SME's sustainability reporting, this layer does not exist, and it is not up to a software platform to devise an equivalent of its own.
That does not mean there is nothing to check. It means that the verification currently lies with the customer, the bank or the insurer themselves, and with what you provide them as supporting evidence. the most frequently asked questions about what esgia is and is not explores in more detail where exactly the boundary lies between what the platform does and what it deliberately does not.
Why you are still asked for "evidence"
A customer who is themselves reporting-obligated must obtain information about what happens in their own supply chain. They therefore do not ask you for a certificate, but for a completed questionnaire with supporting evidence they can trace: which figure comes from which energy bill, which assumption goes with which emission factor, with which reference date. The same logic applies to a bank asking about your building's energy performance, or an insurer asking about your vehicle fleet. They want a traceable answer, not an externally certified document.
That traceable answer is exactly what a file produces: the source documents you already have, the assumptions you yourself confirm, and a fixed place where it all remains for the next time a questionnaire arrives. the topics that have been worked through per situation shows which sources go with it and how they relate to each other.
What you can show instead
Without a certifying body, something else remains that is genuinely convincing: a file that is consistent, based on documents you can point to yourself, and built according to the structure of the standard that applies to your situation. That is not proof in the legal sense, but it is the difference between a questionnaire filled in within half an hour with supporting evidence behind it, and a questionnaire filled in on gut feeling. For a customer who must be able to show where their figures come from, that difference is relevant.
How exactly this structure works, and what documents you need for it, is described on the page showing where the information comes from. It also explains why the source reference—that is, where to find each line in the official text—is deliberately freely accessible: traceability is precisely the point, so you do not put that behind a paywall.
Be cautious with third-party marks of approval
Badges and certificates are appearing on the market that present themselves as ESG recognition for SMEs. Because there is no legal framework that tests such recognitions, it is up to you to be critical about what such a certificate precisely declares, who issues it and on what basis. For the legal meaning of a specific claim, or for the question of whether your company falls under a particular obligation, a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority is the right contact point; this article describes the current state of affairs, not advice for your specific situation.
Would you first like to know whether this applies to your company, and which questionnaire goes with it? in a few questions you will see where you stand, without needing an account for that.