Vinçotte Luxembourg, via its expert unit in risk management and management systems, and Deveco, a strategic and operational consultancy firm in sustainable development, have entered into a non-exclusive partnership to support all companies in the country on the road to sustainability. "The subject is complex and made all the more difficult by the fact that the European Commission has just announced a new 'omnibus' law that should lead to the revision of several texts stemming from the European Green Deal, designed to align corporate strategies with sustainability objectives", notes Mike van Kauvenbergh, Director of Deveco. "In concrete terms, and this is good news, substantial reductions in reporting requirements are expected in the coming years, particularly in the context of the CSRD directive, which is at the heart of the news today."
An unavoidable preparatory stage
As a reminder, the aim of the CSRD directive is to create a system of mandatory publication of non-financial information, known as "sustainability information", for large companies that meet 2 of the 3 criteria, i.e. have more than 250 employees, a net turnover in excess of 50 million euros and/or a balance sheet with total assets in excess of 25 million euros. If we stick to the initial plan, during the first part of 2026, the large companies concerned will have to carry out their first reporting exercise in order to offer a transparent, accurate and comparable view of the impacts, risks and opportunities on subjects such as the environment, social and governance (ESG). Gauthier Baudoin, Operations Manager at Vinçotte Luxembourg, comments: "To meet their obligations, these large companies are going to have to gather a great deal of information throughout their value chain, and particularly from their suppliers, who may be smaller structures. As a result, SMEs will also be affected by the implementation of the directive in the very near future. And they need to be prepared.
Luxembourg SMEs affected
To help SMEs in this exercise, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has been asked by the European Commission to draw up a voluntary sustainable development reporting standard for unlisted small and medium-sized enterprises. This is known as VSME, or Voluntary Sustainability Reporting for Micro-Enterprises. It is a framework that aims to encourage very small companies to participate in sustainability reporting on a voluntary basis, meeting the growing demands for transparency and sustainability without imposing a disproportionate burden on them. Gauthier Baudoin continues: "In the future, SMEs will have to adopt a more sustainable approach in order to continue working with large companies or simply to respond to a public invitation to tender. Banks, which are also faced with more stringent requirements, will certainly be applying this standardised European method to gain a better understanding of their business customers and their sustainable commitments. These criteria could, for example, come into play when granting credit...".
In the future, to continue working with large companies or simply to respond to a public invitation to tender, SMEs will have to commit to a more sustainable approach.
Support towards greater sustainability
Even if the rules of the game dictated by Europe are constantly evolving, there can be no doubt that it is in the interests of Luxembourg SMEs to take an immediate interest in all issues relating to sustainability. However, a small organisation often has neither the staff nor the time to tackle these complex issues. "The idea behind our partnership is to offer them our services and tailor-made support to help them, firstly, to understand what the approach consists of and, secondly, to offer them tools and help them to implement practical solutions. This involves training, audits, analysis, etc. The field of action is very broad. Thanks to our complementary areas of expertise, we can offer a complete or à la carte service, depending on the maturity of the customer in relation to these issues", explains Vinçotte's Operations Manager.
A winning combination to ensure its long-term future
Deveco has extensive expertise in analysing a company's impact on the entire ESG sphere. Using materiality analysis in particular, we help companies to better understand and prioritise their sustainability issues," explains Mike Van Kauvenbergh. Once the strategic themes and the objectives to be achieved have been set, we can then define the tools to be put in place and implement them." At the end of the chain, in order to validate the commitments made, Vinçotte assists its customers through all the stages of certification, whether in the field of environmental management (ISO 140001), health and safety management at work [ISO 45001] or other subjects such as the validation of a carbon footprint or a carbon neutrality approach".
We use materiality analysis to help companies better understand and prioritise their sustainability issues.
The advantage of our partnership is that the information and data already collected by one can then be used by the other. Deveco can add value to the results of a certification, just as an environmental audit can take into account our work on analysing the value chain or stakeholders. The customer benefits fully from this synergy," add our two contacts. All in all, we are very pleased with the European desire to simplify the rules of the game. Rather than getting bogged down in compliance work, companies should be able to focus more on the real added value of a sustainable approach, which is essential if they are to create added value. Even if reporting requirements decrease, it is important that every structure, large or small, carries out this fundamental work and develops the right strategy to ensure its long-term survival.