What does “sustainable” mean? With the EU Taxonomy, a common classification system for sustainable economic activity was put in place to find a common language and clear definition of sustainability.

Still, stakeholders and market participants perceive a lack of awareness and clarity regarding the Taxonomy. Awareness of Taxonomy requirements is still quite low among market participants and stakeholders. Nonetheless, they wish to gain a deeper understanding of the Taxonomy, since it is perceived as quite challenging.

For example, regarding the Circular Economy Taxonomy criteria, stakeholders have emphasised the lack of specifications, definitions and a general sense of unclarity over aspects in all the criteria. Many SMEs are keen on better understanding the concrete impact which the Taxonomy has for the Buildings & Infrastructure sector.

Furthermore, since demonstrating compliance requires collecting data and information, data accessibility is an important factor which is still lacking. Gaps with regards to DNSH (do no significant harm) data are especially prevalent. These gaps in knowledge, data and also tools hinder the application of the Taxonomy.

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Programme details

Moderator: Christine Lemaitre

• Welcome and Context
  • Christine Lemaitre, German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB)
  • EESC member
     
• Panel disussion
  What is Taxonomy? What is its purpose? How to tackle gaps (information, tools, data)
  • Josefina Lindblom, DG Environment, European Commission
  • Carolina Montano-Owen, World Green Building Council
  • Ben Allen, IEEP (TWG)
     
• Panel discussion
  What does Taxonomy mean for the building and infrastructure sector?
  • Fernando Sigchos Jiménez, European Builders Confederation
  • Alexandra Quint, Assiduus
  • Manuel Ehlers, Triodos
     
• Conclusion & the way forward
  • Christine Lemaitre, DGNB