Summary
- Tailored for consultancies: kohärent uses CSR Tools templates and recommends them to its clients as an easy-to-understand, legally robust starting point. Since developing such templates in-house is resource-intensive, this gives the consultancy an expert foundation that is ready to use immediately.
- Cost-effective alternative: CSR Tools’ structured solutions for consultancies offer an attractive alternative to expensive, license-based software solutions.
- Streamlined processes: From the Materiality Assessment to the data-gap analysis, the templates significantly reduce the coordination effort with specialist departments, while data gaps are identified quickly and systematically.
- Audit-ready results & maximum data ownership: The documentation created with the templates stands up to reviews by auditors, while companies maintain full control of their data without being tied to complex software platforms.
- Reliable partnership: Professional exchange and the rapid adaptation of the tools to new regulations make CSR Tools a strategic partner for consulting firms.
Expertise meets consistency
kohärent is an Austrian consulting firm specializing in sustainability management and sustainability reporting. For more than 20 years, it has supported companies on their path to a sustainability strategy and standards-compliant reporting. The team places particular emphasis on coherence: values, strategies, and reports must form a consistent overall picture. Its clients range from mid-sized companies such as bellaflora, Löffler, and Fischer Sports to corporations like voestalpine, Greiner, and Semperit.
With the new regulatory requirements, the team faced the key challenge of making the complexity of the ESRS and the voluntary VSME standard tangible for their mid-market clients. They also needed a pragmatic way to efficiently implement the double Materiality Assessment (DMA) and the specific data points.
The challenge and the path to CSR Tools
Consulting firms like kohärent want to support their clients pragmatically, vendor-neutral, and in a legally robust way. Developing such guidance and technical templates in-house, however, is very time-consuming and resource-intensive.
At the same time, the team was clear: Mid-sized companies need tools that enable a direct yet technically sound entry point into the VSME standard. Since expensive software solutions are often not suitable for many SMEs, kohärent looked for proven, practical, and affordable solutions.
The search for a path that works without complex licensing systems while still offering maximum audit assurance ultimately led to CSR Tools’ structured solutions for consultancies.
kohärent deliberately chose to use and actively recommend several solutions from the CSR Tools portfolio:
- Materiality Assessment Excel Template for the methodological assessment of impacts, risks, and opportunities (IROs).
- VSME data points list as a systematic checklist for the data-gap analysis.
They particularly valued CSR Tools’ flexibility in continuously incorporating regulatory developments, as well as the reliable support from Alexander Spahn.
Structure, time savings, and audit assurance
In day-to-day consulting, kohärent’s team recommends that clients purchase the CSR Tools themselves so that data ownership remains directly with the company. This way, the client retains full control while the consultants provide methodological guidance.
CSR Tools’ structured solutions for consultancies deliver immediate impact in day-to-day practice:
Materiality Assessment in expert hands
With the Materiality Assessment Excel Template, kohärent’s consultants usually handle the methodological inputs and alignments. This ensures the IRO assessment meets the highest technical standards and is documented in a methodologically sound way.
Practical checklist for sustainability managers
Clients use the VSME data points list directly as a working tool for their internal data-gap analysis. This allows specialist departments to independently determine which data points are already fulfilled and where gaps remain.
Successful audit
That the process works is shown by feedback from the field: users confirmed that the documentation created with the Excel template held up in the audit process without any need for adjustments.
Reduced manual effort
The painstaking extraction of individual data points from the standard is no longer necessary, as the VSME templates already map them systematically. This secures expertise within the process and saves a great deal of time in data collection.
Looking ahead: Navigating regulatory momentum together
For kohärent, sustainability is not a one-off project, but an ongoing development and a guiding principle for more than 20 years. The company also wants to rely on CSR Tools’ support and collaboration for future requirements, such as revised ESRS versions or voluntary reporting standards.
The advantage for consultants is obvious: the tools are more cost-effective than large system solutions while still offering the depth needed for standards-compliant reporting. This flexibility allows kohärent to focus fully on strategically supporting its clients, while the technical foundation remains up to date.
CSR Tools’ structured solutions for consultancies
The collaboration with kohärent highlights how structured solutions for consultancies make the decisive difference in day-to-day project work. The case study proves: A technically sound implementation doesn’t require highly complex software platforms, but structured, standards-compliant, practical tools.
Because the tools are self-explanatory, can be documented in an audit-ready way, and are more cost-effective than license-based ESG software solutions, they offer a particularly attractive alternative for companies that value efficiency and maximum data ownership.
The collaboration with kohärent shows impressively: When consulting expertise meets structured, practical solutions, the sustainability report becomes not a burden, but an opportunity for clear, values-driven corporate management.
