A metal processing or manufacturing company that receives a sustainability questionnaire often sees three recurring sections: energy consumption of machinery and furnaces, the origin of metals and other raw materials, and employee data. This is no accident. The sector has relatively high energy intensity per process and a long supply chain, and those are precisely the points that a customer, bank or insurer asks about.
The questions themselves vary widely in formulation, but the underlying information is often the same: how much energy do you consume, where does your steel, aluminium or plastic come from, and how many people work under what conditions. Below you will see for each section what is usually asked and where you can find that answer.
Energy and processes: the focus of the questionnaire
Welding, melting, heat treatment, pressing and coating consume energy, and this translates directly into questions about gas consumption, electricity consumption and sometimes the type of process per production line. A questionnaire may ask for total consumption per year, the split between gas and electricity, and any measures to reduce that consumption. For companies that already fall under energy savings obligations, some of this information is already documented; that overlap saves research work but does not replace the ESG questionnaire, because the questions and units may differ.
The figures themselves are usually on the energy bill and in the meter readings. Where it gets more complicated is the conversion to CO2 emissions: this requires an emission factor, and that factor changes per reference date. An incorrect or outdated factor produces a figure that looks correct but is not.
Origin of raw materials and the value chain
The second section addresses where materials come from: which country the steel or aluminium was purchased from, whether recycled material is in the mix, and sometimes whether the supplier itself provides data on origin and processing. This is part of what the standards call the value chain: not only what happens in your own facility, but also what happens before and after with suppliers and customers.
For a smaller manufacturing company, this is often the most difficult part of the questionnaire, simply because their own supplier does not always have that information readily available. The voluntary standard for non-listed SMEs (VSME) is deliberately limited here: it asks for what a company can reasonably know from its own records, not for a complete chain analysis. To see what falls within that limit for your own company, you will find an overview on the page with topics per situation.
Staff, safety and working conditions
The third recurring section concerns employees: number of staff, ratio of permanent to flexible workers, sick leave, and in manufacturing often specific questions about workplace safety given the work with machinery and heavy materials. This data is usually already in payroll administration or absence records and therefore does not need to be compiled separately.
What you must and must not answer
Not every question that comes in is allowed to be asked. Since March 2026, for a company subject to reporting obligations, it may not demand more sustainability information from a supplier with one thousand employees or fewer than what is in the VSME standard. If a customer asks, for example, for a detailed chain analysis of every sub-supplier, while the standard only asks for a general assessment, then that part can be refused. How you formulate that to the customer, and what exactly falls outside the limit, varies by question; a first indication you get by seeing in a few questions where your company stands.
Where the answers come from
Most figures for a sustainability questionnaire in this sector are already recorded somewhere: on the energy bill, in fuel receipts for the vehicle fleet, and in payroll administration. The work is not in collecting new data, but in reading it correctly and assigning it to the right question. More on how this link is made can be found on the page that explains where the information comes from.
This article describes common practice and is not legal advice on your specific questionnaire or situation. For an assessment of your own position, you can consult a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority.
Have you received a questionnaire and want to quickly know which questions may and may not be asked of your company? Do the free quick-scan, or read first the answers to frequently asked questions to see if your situation is included.