Structured solutions for consultancies — a case study with kohärent
How the consultancy kohärent uses and recommends CSR Tools’ structured solutions to give its mid-market clients a pragmatic, legally robust entry point into sustainability reporting.
- Austrian sustainability consultancy
- Over 20 years of experience
- Specialized in ESRS and VSME
Initial situation: 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 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. The decisive factors for the collaboration were above all these:
Mid-sized companies need tools that enable a direct yet technically sound entry point into the VSME standard.
Since expensive software solutions are often unsuitable for many SMEs, kohärent looked for proven, practical, and affordable solutions without complex licensing systems.
They sought a path that works without complex software while still offering the highest audit assurance for the documentation.
The team particularly valued the flexibility to continuously incorporate regulatory developments, as well as the reliable support from Alexander Spahn.
This search ultimately led to CSR Tools’ structured solutions for consultancies. kohärent deliberately chose to use and actively recommend several solutions from the portfolio.
„We were looking for tools that would enable our mid-market clients to take a pragmatic first step toward the new requirements. CSR Tools’ solutions structure the necessary processes well and include work instructions that adhere strictly to the standards."
These CSR Tools products are in use
For the methodological assessment of impacts, risks, and opportunities (IROs) in a cleanly documented double materiality assessment.
A systematic checklist for the data-gap analysis that specialist departments use directly as a working tool.
Impact: 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. The structured solutions deliver immediate impact in everyday practice:
- Materiality Assessment in expert hands: The consultants handle the methodological inputs and alignments, so the IRO assessment meets the highest technical standards.
- Practical checklist: Clients use the VSME Data Points List directly for their internal data-gap analysis and independently determine where gaps remain.
- Successful audit: 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 is no longer necessary, as the VSME templates already map them systematically – saving a great deal of time in data collection.
That data ownership remains within the company is a central principle for kohärent: all entries, adjustments, and evaluations sit directly with the client, while the consultants ensure the technical guidance.
„We recommend that our clients buy the tools themselves so they retain ownership of their own data and all entries, adjustments, and evaluations remain within the company."
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.
„The tools are largely self-explanatory. They provide a clear structure for complex processes and ensure clean, traceable documentation."
Structure your materiality assessment and reporting – with the same practical solutions that kohärent relies on.
