Your first sustainability report in the metals and manufacturing industry: what goes in it?
A first sustainability report for a metals company is not a thick document with policy statements, but a clear document that shows where your emissions come from and how your raw materials were sourced. For the metals and manufacturing industry, in practice this revolves around two focal points: the energy consumption of your production processes (smelting, welding, heat treatment, surface treatment) and the origin of the metals and alloys you process.
The basis is usually already present in documents you have anyway: the energy bill for your business premises and machinery, fuel receipts from forklifts and company vehicles, and a purchasing register showing who you source sheet steel, tubes or castings from. You build a report by organizing that data according to a fixed structure, so that a customer, bank or insurer can see at a glance what is in it and what is not.
Why energy-intensive processes form the main part
At a metals company, the largest part of direct emissions is almost always in the energy consumption of production itself, not in office space or company vehicles. A smelting furnace, a welding robot or a galvanizing line draws far more electricity or gas than the rest of the building combined. For this reason, a basic report devotes relatively much attention to the distinction between consumption for production and consumption for other business operations: this makes the figure traceable and logical for whoever reads the report.
To convert that consumption into a CO2 figure, an established emission factor is needed, with a reference date. These factors change from time to time, and a report that uses an old factor without stating that is less useful than a report that clearly states which factor and which reference date were used. If you don't yet know exactly which figures are relevant for your process, you will find an overview per sector on the page with topics per sector.
Source of raw materials: what the standard asks for and what it doesn't
The second focal point is the value chain: where your raw materials come from, and what you know about the parties that supply them to you. The voluntary EU standard for non-listed SMEs (VSME) asks for a limited, manageable set of data here, not an extensive chain analysis like large, listed companies have to prepare. For a metals company, this usually means: an overview of the main suppliers of steel, aluminium or other metals, and to the extent known an indication of origin and any certification.
It is not uncommon for a questionnaire from a major customer to go further than what the standard asks, especially on this point. Since March 2026, a threshold applies for suppliers with a thousand employees or fewer: a reporting-obligated company may not require more sustainability information than is in the VSME standard. Anything beyond that, you may refuse, as long as you formulate it properly. How to recognize this distinction in a concrete questionnaire, you can read on the page where you can see in a few questions where you stand.
From loose figures to a report you can share
The step from loose data to a report is essentially about recording the source for each figure: which energy bill the consumption comes from, which fuel receipts were included, and which purchase list the supplier list comes from. That traceability is precisely what a customer, bank or insurer wants to see, and it is also what makes the report usable again for the next questionnaire. Once a dossier has been built, it does not need to be reassembled in the next round; only what has changed is updated. How that build-up from your own documents works is explained on the page on how the data are compiled.
What the report is not
A basic report at VSME level is not an audit, assurance or certification mark. For these SME reports, there is currently no recognised body, neither at esgia nor at any other provider. The report is a neat, traceable representation of data that you yourself have supplied and confirmed; it is not legal or sustainability advice about your specific situation. For questions that affect your own position under the regulations, a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority is the right point of contact.
Would you like to see which sections can already be filled in for your company and which still raise questions, then do the free quick-scan or review the topics that have been specifically developed for the metals and manufacturing industry.