Quality of ESG data: pass your seat belts one by one
In the world of sustainability, the stakes are high. On the business side: resilience in the face of climate and social risks, ability to finance themselves, to insure themselves, to dialogue with investors and to prove their impact. On the finance side: direct capital to actors who control their risks and their transition. And at the center of all this, one element is decisive: the quality of ESG data. Without reliable, organized and verifiable data, internal management becomes approximate, and the confidence of banks, insurers and investors collapses. We use a simple analogy to explain this path of progression: that of belts in judo.
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🟡 Yellow Belt: getting started with the VSME
To get started, a business needs a simple and educational framework. The EFRAG (European Financial Reporting Advisory Group) understood this well: the VSME offers a voluntary, legible and proportionate starting point for SMEs.
This framework offers SMEs an initial, voluntary and streamlined framework for structuring their extra-financial information. It is ideal for:
- Start: facilitate the first steps of reporting.
- Understand: identify the basic themes without undergoing the immediate complexity of CSRD.
It is a pragmatic, accessible introduction that avoids the immediate shock of the CSRD.
🔵 Blue belt: progressing with VSME+
Very quickly, businesses realize that generic data is no longer enough: they need to be contextualized. That's why we developed VSME+, our extension of VSME enriched with sectoral and territorial dimensions.
Our VSME+ makes it possible to move from simple compliance to useful and strategic management.
Concretely, it provides:
- Relevance: data that is directly useful for banks, insurers, investors and contractors.
- Analysis: a clear visibility on the risks and opportunities specific to the sector and the territory.
- Consistency: a language shared between actors, which simplifies exchanges and reduces questionnaires.
This is the stage where data starts to produce value.
⚫ Black Belt: mastering the major standards (CSRD, ISSB, GRI)
Once the data is reliable, structured and contextualized (VSME+), the company can aim for the Black Belt: the major international standards.
She has acquired the experience and the quality of data necessary to address the most complex and global frameworks:
- ISSB (IFRS S1 & S2) : To meet the expectations of global capital markets.
- GRI : For comprehensive reporting, oriented to stakeholders.
- France Invest : For dialogue with management companies.
- CSRD : The European regulatory target requires robust and auditable data sets.
- CS3D : The future stage of due diligence (duty of care).
This level requires data that is not only complete, but also audited, organized, and reused consistently across all of these frameworks.
Harnest's role: guaranteeing the quality and ROI of data
This course doesn't have to be an exhausting marathon. That is precisely the role of Harnest, our software package.
Harnest guarantees that each piece of data is:
- reliable and verified,
- organized according to the right standards,
- reused intelligently (a single data → several reports).
It's reuse that creates quality, speed, and ROI. No more disparate spreadsheets, duplicates, and doubts about auditability.
Our mission at Ascend is simple: valorize ESG data and make its management really useful for the company. Organizations no longer have an interest in staying at the “yellow belt” level. The rise in maturity must be gradual, proportionate and above all structured from the start.
To find out more about VSME+, our sectoral and territorial extension of VSME, discover the complete presentation.