The European Green Taxonomy regulation establishes a common classification framework for sustainable investments and economic activities in Europe, designed to steer the money flows of investors and companies in a new system of Sustainable Finance.

This legislation is crucial as it guides the European Union towards the climate neutrality set by 2050 and favours the financing of economic activities that are in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal.

To comply with the EU Taxonomy, an economic activity must make a substantial positive contribution to at least one of the six environmental and climate objectives set out in the regulation and commit to not producing negative impacts on any of them.

The environmental objectives on which companies must have a positive impact are:

• Climate change mitigation;
• Adaptation to climate change;
• Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources;
• Transition to the circular economy, including waste reduction and recycling;
• Pollution prevention and control;
• Protection of biodiversity and the health of eco-systems.

Greenwich is able to provide guidance on the functioning, methodology and application of the European Taxonomy to:

• investors and financial institutions wishing to gain a thorough understanding of the companies in which they invest and their level of sustainability and social responsibility;
• companies and organisations wishing to adopt an international transparency tool to qualify as sustainable and communicate their commitment using the Taxonomy framework.

The consultancy services provided by Greenwich for the application of the EU Taxonomy and for the planning of substantial contributions to the achievement of the environmental objectives described in the Regulation can be summarised as follows:

• Assessment of the company profile in relation to the requirements for the EU Taxonomy.
• Definition of requirements and guidelines to be followed for alignment with EU environmental objectives.
• Implementation strategy to comply with the EU Taxonomy. Definition of ESG KPIs and monitoring process.
• Performance of climate risk analysis.
• LCA studies for buildings.
• Consultancy for thermal integrity and tightness audits of the building envelope.

Eu taxonomy in Real Estate

Specifically, Construction and Real Estate in the European Green Taxonomy are considered economic activities in transition towards circularity, as they are still responsible for high carbon emissions. Specific technical screening criteria have been defined for their classification.

For example, for new buildings:

In accordance with national standards, new buildings must have energy requirements at least 10 per cent lower than near-zero-energy buildings.

• For buildings larger than 5000 square metres, the global warming potential (GWP) of a project is calculated and disclosed to investors at the beginning of the project’s life cycle. After construction of the portfolio, both performance and disclosure are reviewed to ensure that customers are informed throughout the construction process.
• For buildings larger than 5000 square metres, the thermal integrity and airtightness of the building envelope is verified.

For refurbished existing buildings

Reduction of energy requirements by at least 30 % compared to existing buildings.

To prove compliance with these criteria, a lot of data needs to be collected, more than is usually available. Contact Greenwich Consultants and request information now.