how do I answer the question about impact on biodiversity of our location

Location in relation to protected natural area is the key

This question is almost always about the location of your site, not about an extensive ecological impact analysis. VSME asks in the basic module about the number of locations in or near a protected natural area, and sometimes about the area concerned. This is a factual, geographical question: is your building, warehouse or site located in such an area or does it border one. Do not confuse this with whether locations are situated in or next to a protected natural area which can appear separately in a questionnaire — often this is the same question in different wording, and you can use the same answer.

If you have no idea whether your location is in such an area, then "no, not known" is not a good answer without verification — you can check this with the municipality or look it up on the map of protected areas (Natura 2000 in the EU). If you have already done this verification for another questionnaire, that answer is in principle reusable, until the situation changes. Some customers ask further about concrete measures — green management, hard surfaces, light pollution — but this falls outside the basic VSME question and belongs more to an extended report.

Where this appears in VSME: the basic module on environmental indicators

VSME addresses this in the basic module, in the section on biodiversity, as part of the environmental indicators alongside energy, emissions and waste. It specifically concerns the location of the site in relation to protected natural areas, not scope 1, 2 or 3 emissions under the GHG Protocol — these are separate indicators that you may encounter elsewhere in the same questionnaire, for example at the direct emissions of greenhouse gases. The VSME standard is voluntary, but is increasingly used as a standard format by banks and larger buyers to ask this question.