Assessing buildings against the EU Taxonomy’s technical screening criteria ensures that investments and activities align with the EU’s sustainability goals, particularly in reducing carbon emissions and enhancing energy efficiency. This assessment helps to grow the clean economy of the future and substantially improve the environmental performance of the industries we have today. It also provides transparency for investors and stakeholders by defining what constitutes a sustainable building, and it drives the real estate and construction sectors toward adopting greener practices and technologies.
The EU Taxonomy assesses the sustainability of buildings based on their contribution to six environmental objectives:
- Climate change mitigation
- Climate change adaptation
- Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources
- Transition to a circular economy, waste prevention and recycling
- Pollution prevention and control
- Protection of healthy ecosystems
Main buildings’ categories in EU Taxonomy:
- existing buildings, the focus is on energy performance, with buildings needing to meet specific energy efficiency criteria like achieving a minimum Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating or primary energy demand of the nearly zero building.
- new constructions are evaluated based on their design and way of construction to ensure low carbon emissions, energy efficiency, and adherence to sustainability regulations.
- building renovations are assessed by the extent to which they improve energy efficiency and adherence to sustainability regulations.
