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Getting Started
What is an SME (European definition)
SME stands for Small and Medium-sized Enterprise. The European definition is based on three criteria:
Micro-enterprise — Up to 10 employees and turnover or total balance sheet up to €2 million.
Small enterprise — Up to 50 employees and turnover or total balance sheet up to €10 million.
Medium enterprise — Up to 250 employees and turnover up to €50 million or total balance sheet up to €43 million.
To be classified as an SME, the company must meet the employee criterion and at least one of the financial criteria.
Why this matters for sustainability
The CSRD no longer applies to every large company. Since Directive (EU) 2026/470 it covers only those with more than 1,000 employees and more than EUR 450 million in net turnover.
The Voluntary Standard is not limited to SMEs: it can be applied by any undertaking with up to 1,000 employees, including self-employed people, unincorporated undertakings and listed micro undertakings. It is proportionate to size: with 10 employees or fewer, most environmental data is voluntary.
In practice, this means that the vast majority of European companies now have a single, proportionate framework for communicating sustainability, instead of answering each bank and each client in a different format.
Getting Started