The EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities: What It Really Implies for Companies

In recent years, the EU has abandoned its voluntary approach to corporate sustainability and is now pushing for sustainable activities in business organisations through formal regulation. One example is the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities, a classification system detailing environmentally sustainable economic activities, which is also intended to include social objectives in the future. An important issue with such regulation is what it brings about and how it affects companies’ sustainability work. Based on an analysis of the current taxonomy and its reception by larger companies in different sectors, three general aspects are identified in this contribution. These include corporate activities in the form of increased self-assessment, accounting concerns, as well as business transformations. Tentatively, the aspect of concrete business transformations occurs only on rare occasions. Rather, it is argued that the taxonomy primarily triggers self-representations and implies a new regulatory landscape to which business must relate in order to be considered competitive within the field of sustainability.