A sustainability policy for a transport or logistics company describes, on paper, how the company handles the topics that a customer, bank or insurer asks about: fuel consumption, the composition of the vehicle fleet, outsourced transport and staff mobility. It is not a mission statement and not a marketing text, but a brief, factual description that you can support with documents you probably already have.
The VSME standard, the voluntary European standard for unlisted SMEs, does not ask for an extensive strategic plan. It is about a practical representation of the current situation and, where applicable, of the steps the company is considering. For a transport or logistics company, that means almost always: what vehicles are there, what fuel do they use, how many, and who is responsible for it.
What a sustainability policy is in essence
A sustainability policy is an internal document that sets out what data the company keeps, who is responsible for it and how often it is reviewed. For most transport companies, this consists of a brief description of the vehicle fleet, fuel consumption, any investments in more fuel-efficient or electric equipment, and how subcontractors are handled. It does not need to be a separate advisory process; it is mainly a matter of documenting what is already happening.
Anyone dealing with an ESG questionnaire for the first time often sees that the topics being asked about already exist somewhere in the administration, just not in one place. set out per topic what you can be asked for provides an overview of the separate building blocks that together make up the policy.
Fuel and vehicle fleet: the core of the policy
The focus of a sustainability policy in transport and logistics is on the vehicle fleet. On paper, it should state: how many vehicles the company has, what fuel they run on (diesel, petrol, LNG, electric), whether vehicles are owned or leased, and what part of fuel consumption can be traced back to fuel receipts, fuel cards or the leasing company. This aligns with what the emission factors with an established reference date need in order to convert litres to CO2 emissions.
The policy does not need to include a target if one does not yet exist. However, it is common to state whether there are plans, for example replacement of part of the vehicle fleet, even if those plans have not yet been worked out in detail. A customer who asks about a reduction target is in practice often asking for this description, not for a quantified trajectory.
Outsourced transport: what you can and cannot document
Many transport companies work with subcontractors or hire additional capacity during peak times. Under the classification in the corporate sustainability reporting directive, that transport usually falls into a different category than the company's own vehicle fleet, and the VSME standard usually does not ask smaller companies for a detailed breakdown of it. In the policy, a description of how subcontractors are worked with is often sufficient: whether there are agreements on fuel type, whether there is a preference for partners with their own sustainability policy, and whether this is recorded in the purchasing terms.
What a customer is allowed to ask about outsourced transport depends on the size of the company and on the supply chain requirements that have applied to reporting-obligated customers since March 2026. If there is any doubt whether a question about subcontractors falls within that limit, the knowledge base on esgia.eu provides an initial direction; for your own situation, the official text of the directive or the competent supervisory authority remains the starting point.
Personnel mobility should be included too
In addition to the fleet for freight and distribution, questionnaires regularly ask about employee mobility: commuting, company cars for office staff, and any business mileage not covered by the company vehicle fleet. Companies that already maintain CO2 records for work-related employee mobility, for example under an existing obligation to do so, can often transfer those figures directly into the policy. This prevents the same data from being recorded twice in different ways.
What you don't need to make up
A sustainability policy is not a promise and not a seal of approval. There is no recognised body for these SME reports, and a well-completed policy is no guarantee that a supervisor or customer won't ask further questions about it. The aim is a description that matches what is in your records: energy bills, fuel receipts and a printout from payroll administration are usually sufficient basis for this.
For those who want to see how such a policy is built step by step from existing documents, you can see where the data in the file comes from. For companies unsure whether the questionnaire from their customer, bank or insurer stays within the permitted limit, there is the capcheck; it assesses each question to see if it is allowed to be asked, without requiring an account.
Would you like to see first where your company roughly stands before you start on the policy? get a first indication from a few questions takes a few minutes and is free, just like the rest of the knowledge base on esgia.eu.