The EU Taxonomy Regulation
The EU Taxonomy Regulation came into force in 2022. It is a set of rules for defining whether companies operate and act ecologically (and also socially) and thus make comparisons possible within the framework of sustainable investments – “greenwashing” is thereby to be prevented and a contribution to achieving the EU climate goals made possible.
A catalogue of criteria has been defined for most industries as to what exactly is to be understood and implemented under “ecologically sustainable management”. Thus, the EU Taxonomy Regulation is one of the most important components of the European Green Deal, which has set the goal of CO2 climate neutrality for the EU by 2050.
Environmental goals of the EU Taxonomy Regulation
6 environmental goals have been defined:
- Climate protection
- Climate change adaption
- Sustainable use of water and marine
- Transition to a circular economy
- Pollution prevention and control
- Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems
A company’s economic activities should focus on one of the above-mentioned goals and not run counter to any of them.
The EU Commission has developed a simple EU taxonomy compass for this purpose, which can be found here.
Product emission and the EU Taxonomy Regulation
Product emissions are also an issue here:
In the context of the assessments of economic activities under the EU Taxonomy Regulation for new construction and renovation of buildings, the following is designated to avoid significant adverse effects:
Building components and materials used in the construction that may come into contact with occupiers emit less than 0,06 mg of formaldehyde per m3 of material or component [1] upon testing in accordance with the conditions specified in Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 and less than 0,001 mg of other categories 1A and 1B carcinogenic volatile organic compounds per m3 of material or component, upon testing in accordance with CEN/EN 16516 or ISO 16000-3:2011 (291) or other equivalent standardised test conditions and determination methods.
eco-INSTITUT and the EU Taxonomy Regulation
eco-INSTITUT can make the following contribution to this:
As an accredited testing institute for product emissions according to EN 16516 and the ISO 16000 series of standards, we test according to the standards mentioned.
These are mostly already the basis of national and international legal requirements and voluntary quality seals for construction products and furnishings. By testing your product according to EN 16516, you can thus combine various requirements: from the EU taxonomy, building law, sustainable building assessment programmes and quality label criteria.
The criteria of our eco-INSTITUT-Label certification programme, which enables you to have low-pollutant and low-emission interior products and building products labelled, go far beyond the requirements profile of the EU Taxonomy Regulation due to its comprehensive and strict testing and assessment regulations.
We look forward to your enquiry at info@eco-institut.de or +49 221 931 245 0.
Information on EN 16516 can be found, for example, in our information sheet on EN 16516 here
Information on eco-INSTITUT you find hier.
Information on eco-INSTITUT-Label you find here.
Further Links:
https://ec.europa.eu/finance/docs/level-2-measures/taxonomy-regulation-delegated-act-2021-2800-annex-1_en.pdf (last accessed Feb 2nd 2023)
[1] it should correctly read per m³ air – comment eco-INSTITUT