I don't have time to fill in this sustainability questionnaire myself

Repetition is the real problem, not the list

Time is usually spent not on new information, but on re-entering the same answers in yet another portal format. A VSME list, a list from a bank and a customer questionnaire often overlap by eighty percent: company identity, number of employees, CO2 figures, policy on human rights. That overlap is precisely why a fixed supply chain file saves time — you fill in the core questions once, and reuse them for every subsequent list. Think of questions as how many employees the undertaking has or what the annual turnover is: these recur in almost every questionnaire, regardless of who the customer is.

What does vary per list is the level of detail and the requested evidence. One customer wants a figure, another wants a reference to a policy document or a certificate. If evidence is missing — for example because there is no formal continuity plan yet — then "no, not yet in place" is just as valid an answer as "yes", as long as it is correct. Saving time therefore does not mean: automatically fill in "yes" everywhere. It means: reuse the answers that are already established, and filter out only the questions that are truly new for each list.

Where the overlap comes from: VSME and CSRD

The EFRAG VSME was set up as a voluntary, uniform basic module precisely because large customers under the CSRD Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2464) are required to collect sustainability information across their entire chain, including from SME suppliers who are not themselves subject to reporting obligations. Because many customers base their questionnaire on that VSME layout, the same data points — identity, size, policy, figures — recur in virtually every list you receive, even if the format differs per portal.